;>!-  ? ■*  1 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/johnquincyadams01mors 


.*  ' 


american  ^tategimen 


EDITED  BY 


JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 


3tnicricmi  iStatcsimtn 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


RY 

JOHN  T morse,  JR. 

rOUETEENTH  EDITION 


BOSTON 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 
New  York;  11  East  Seventeenth  Street 

QTiic  Eiiierfiitie  Press,  CambriUffc 

1889 


Copyright,  1882, 

By  JOHN  T.  MORSK,  JE. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge : 

Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  II.  0.  Houghton  and  Company. 


3.175 

A ^ C. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PASS 

1 ouTH  AKD  Diplomacy i 


CHAPTER  II. 

Secretary  of  State’  and  President 


. 102 


V'  -,  CHAPTER  IIL 

In  the  House  of  Representatives 


226 


4 


M 


“7  5 ^ O 


JOHlSr  QUmOY  ADAMS, 


CHAPTER  L 
YOUTH  AND  DIPLOMACY. 

On  July  11,  1767,  in  the  North  Parish  of 
Braintree,  since  set  off  as  the  town  of  Quincy, 
in  Massachusetts,  was  born  John  Quincy  Adams. 
Two  streams  of  as  good  blood  as  flowed  in  the 
colony  mingled  in  the  veins  of  the  infant.  If 
heredity  counts  for  anything  he  began  life  with 
an  excellent  chance  of  becoming  famous  — non 
sine  dis  animosus  infans.  He  was  called  after 
his  great-grandfather  on  the  mother’s  side, 
John  Quincy,  a man  of  local  note  who  had 
borne  in  his  day  a distinguished  part  in  pro- 
vincial affairs.  Such  a naming  was  a simple 
and  natural  occurrence  enough,  but  Mr.  Adams 
afterward  moralized  upon  it  in  his  character- 
istic way : — 

“ The  incident  which  gave  rise  to  this  circumstance 
is  not  without  its  moral  to  my  heart.  He  was  dying 
when  I was  baptized ; and  his  daughter,  my  grand- 
mother, present  at  my  birth,  requested  that  I might 
receive  his  name.  The  fact,  recorded  by  my  father 
1 


2 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


at  the  time,  has  connected  with  that  portion  of  my 
name  a charm  of  mingled  sensibility  and  devotion. 
It  was  filial  tenderness  that  gave  the  name.  It  was 
the  name  of  one  passing  from  earth  to  immortality. 
These  have  been  among  the  strongest  links  of  my 
attachment  to  the  name  of  Quincy,  and  have  been  to 
me  through  life  a perpetual  admonition  to  do  nothing 
unworthy  of  it.” 

Fate,  which  had  made  such  good  preparation 
for  him  before  his  birth,  was  not  less  kind  in 
arranging  the  circumstances  of  his  early  train- 
ing and  development.  His  father  was  deeply 
engaged  in  the  patriot  cause,  and  the  first 
matters  borne  in  upon  his  opening  intelligence 
concerned  the  public  discontent  and  resistance 
to  tyranny.  He  was  but  seven  years  old  when 
he  clambered  with  his  mother  to  the  top  of  one 
of  the  high  hills  in  the  neighborhood  of  his 
home  to  listen  to  the  sounds  of  conflict  upon 
Bunker’s  Hill,  and  to  watch  the  flaming  ruin 
of  Charlestown.  Profound  was  the  impression 
made  upon  him  by  the  spectacle,  and  it  was 
intensified  by  many  an  hour  spent  afterward 
ipon  the  same  spot  during  the  siege  and  bom- 
bardment of  Boston.  Then  John  Adams  went 
as  a delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress  at 
Philadelphia,  and  his  wife  and  children  were 
left  for  twelve  months,  as  John  Quincy  Adams 
says,  — it  is  to  be  hoped  with  a little  exaggera 


JOIIS  QUINCY  ADAilS. 


3 


tion  of  the  barbarity  of  British  troops  toward 
women  and  babes,  — “ liable  every  hour  of  the 
day  and  of  the  night  to  be  butchered  in  cold 
blood,  or  taken  and  carried  into  Boston  as  hos- 
tages, b}"^  any  foraging  or  marauding  detach- 
ment.” Later,  when  the  British  had  evacu- 
ated Boston,  the  boy,  barely  nine  years  old, 
became  “ post-rider  ” between  the  city  and  the 
farm,  a distance  of  eleven  miles  each  way,  in 
order  to  bring  all  the  latest  news  to  his  mother. 

Not  much  regular  schooling  was  to  be  got 
amid  such  surroundings  of  times  and  events, 
but  the  lad  had  a natural  aptitude  or  affinity  for 
knowledge  which  stood  him  in  better  stead  than 
could  any  dame  of  a village  school.  The  follow- 
ing letter  to  his  father  is  worth  preserving  : — 


Braintree,  June  the  2d,  1777. 

Dear  Sir,  — I love  to  receive  letters  very  well, 
much  better  than  I love  to  write  them.  I make  but 
a poor  figure  at  composition,  my  head  is  much  too 
fickle,  my  thoughts  are  running  after  birds’  eggs,  play 
and  trifles  till  I get  vexed  with  myself.  I have  but 
I'ust  entered  the  3d  volume  of  Smollett,  tho’  I had 
designed  to  have  got  it  half  through  by  this  time.  I 
have  determined  this  week  to  be  more  diligent,  as 
Mr.  Thaxter  will  be  absent  at  Hourt  and  I Cannot 
pursue  my  other  Studies.  I have  Set  myself  a Stent 
and  determine  to  read  the  3d  volume  Half  out.  If 
[ can  but  keep  my  resolution  I will  write  again  at  the 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


I 

end  of  the  week  and  give  a better  account  of  myself, 
I wish,  Sir,  you  would  give  me  some  instructions 
with  regard  to  my  time,  and  advise  me  how  to  pro- 
portion my  Studies  and  my  Play,  in  writing,  and  I 
will  keep  them  by  me  and  endeavor  to  follow  them. 
I am,  dear  Sir,  with  a present  determination  of  grow- 
ing better.  Yours. 

P.  S.  Sir,  if  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  favor  me 
with  a Blank  book,  I will  transcribe  the  most  re- 
markable occurrences  I mett  with  in  my  reading, 
wliich  will  serve  to  fix  them  upon  my  mind, 

Not  long  after  the  writing  of  this  model 
epistle,  the  simple  village  life  was  interrupted 
by  an  unexpected  change.  John  Adams  was 
sent  on  a diplomatic  journey  to  Paris,  and  on 
February  13,  1778,  embarked  in  the  frigate 
Boston.  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  eleven 
years  old,  accompanied  his  father  and  thus  made 
his  first  acquaintance  with  the  foreign  lands 
where  so  many  of  his  coming  years  were  to  be 
passed.  This  initial  visit,  however,  was  brief ; 
and  he  was  hardly  well  established  at  school 
when  events  caused  his  father  to  start  for  home. 
Unfortunately  this  return  trip  was  a needless 
loss  of  time,  since  within  three  months  of  their 
Betting  foot  upon  American  shores  the  two 
travellers  were  again  on  their  stormy  way  back 
across  the  Atlantic  in  a leaky  ship,  which  had  to 
land  them  at  the  nearest  port  in  Spain.  One 


JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS.  5 

more  quotation  must  be  given  from  a letter  writ 

ten  just  after  the  first  arrival  in  France: 

Passy,  September  the  27th,  1778. 

Honored  Mamma, — My  Pappa  enjoins  it  upon 
me  to  keep  a Journal,  or  a Diary  of  the  Events  that 
happen  to  me,  and  of  objects  that  I see,  and  of 
Characters  that  I converse  with  from  day  to  day ; and 
altho’  I am  Convinced  of  the  utility,  importance  and 
necessity  of  this  Exercise,  yet  I have  not  patience 
and  perseverance  enough  to  do  it  so  Constantly  as  I 
ought.  My  Pappa,  who  takes  a great  deal  of  pains 
to  put  me  in  the  right  way,  has  also  advised  me  to 
Preserve  Copies  of  all  my  letters,  and  has  given  me 
a Convenient  Blank  Book  for  this  end ; and  altho’  I 
shall  have  the  mortification  a few  years  hence  to  read 
a great  deal  of  my  Childish  nonsense,  yet  I shall 
have  the  Pleasure  and  advantage  of  Remarking  the 
several  steps  by  which  I shall  have  advanced  in  taste, 
judgment  and  knowledge.  A Journal  Book  and  a let- 
ter Book  of  a Lad  of  Eleven  years  old  Can  not  be 
expected  to  Contain  much  of  Science,  Literature,  arts, 
wisdom,  or  wit,  yet  it  may  serve  to  perpetuate  many 
observations  that  I may  make,  and  may  hereafter 
help  me  to  recollect  both  persons  and  things  that 
would  other  ways  escape  my  memory. 

He  continues  with  resolutions  “to  be  more 
thoughtful  and  industrious  for  the  future,”  and 
reflects  with  pleasure  upon  the  prospect  that 
his  scheme  “ will  be  a sure  means  of  improve- 
ment to  myself,  and  enable  me  to  be  more 


6 JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

entertaining  to  you.”  What  gratification  must 
this  letter  from  one  who  was  quite  justified  in 
signing  himself  her  “dutiful  and  affectionate 
son”  have  brought  to  the  Puritan  bosom  of  the 
good  mother  at  home  ! If  the  plan  for  the  diary 
was  not  pursued  during  the  fii’st  short  flitting 
abroad,  it  can  hardly  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
“ lad  of  eleven  years  ” as  a serious  fault.  He 
did  in  fact  begin  it  when  setting  out  on  the 
aforementioned  second  trip  to  Europe,  calling  it 

A Journal  by  J.  Q.  A., 

From  America  to  Spain, 

Vol.  I. 

Begun  Friday,  12  of  November,  1779. 

The  spark  of  life  in  the  great  undertaking 
flickered  in  a somewhat  feeble  and  irregular 
way  for  many  years  thereafter,  but  apparently 
gained  strength  by  degrees  until  in  1795,  as 
Mr.  C.  F.  Adams  tells  us,  “ what  may  bo 
denominated  the  diary  proper  begins,”  a very 
vigorous  work  in  more  senses  than  one.  Co\i- 
tinued  with  astonishing  persistency  and  faith- 
fulness until  within  a few  days  of  the  writer’s 
death,  the  latest  entry  is  of  the  4th  of  January, 
1848.  Mr.  Adams  achieved  many  successes 
during  his  life  as  the  result  of  conscious  effort, 
Dut  the  greatest  success  of  all  he  achieved  al- 
together unconsciously.  He  left  a portrait  ol 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


7 


himself  more  full,  correct,  vivid,  and  picturesque 
than  has  ever  been  bequeathed  to  posterity  by 
any  other  personage  of  the  past  ages.  Any 
mistakes  which  may  be  made  in  estimating  his 
mental  or  moral  attributes  must  be  charged  to 
the  dullness  or  prejudice  of  the  judge,  who 
could  certainly  not  ask  for  better  or  more 
abundant  evidence.  Few  of  us  know  our  most 
intimate  friends  better  than  any  of  us  may 
know  Mr.  Adams,  if  we  will  but  take  the 
trouble.  Even  the  brief  extracts  already  given 
from  his  correspondence  show  us  the  boy;  it 
only  concerns  us  to  get  them  into  the  proper 
light  for  seeing  them  accurately.  If  a lad  of 
seven,  nine,  or  eleven  years  of  age  should  write 
such  solemn  little  effusions  amid  the  surround- 
ings and  influences  of  the  present  day,  he  would 
probably  be  set  down  justly  enough  as  either 
an  offensive  young  prig  or  a prematurely  de- 
veloped hypocrite.  But  the  precocious  Adams 
had  only  a little  of  the  prig  and  nothing  of 
the  hypocrite  in  his  nature.  Being  the  out- 
come of  mairy  generations  of  simple,  devout, 
' intelligent  Puritan  ancestors,  living  in  a com- 
munity which  loved  virtue  and  sought  knowl- 
edge, all  inherited  and  all  present  influences 
\/"  combined  to  make  him,  as  it  may  be  put  in  a 
single  word,  sensible.  He  had  inevitably  a 
mental  boyhood  and  youth,  but  morally  he  waa 


8 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


never  either  a child  or  a lad;  all  his  leading 
traits  of  character  Avere  as  strongly  marked 
when  he  was  seven  as  when  he  Avas  seventy, 
and  at  an  age  when  most  young  people  simply 
Avin  love  or  cause  annoyance,  he  Avas  preferring 
wisdom  to  mischief,  and  actually  in  his  earliest 
years  Avas  attracting  a certain  respect. 

These  few  but  bold  and  striking  touches 
Avhich  paint  the  boy  are  changed  for  an  infin- 
itely more  elaborate  and  complex  presentation 
from  the  time  when  the  Diary  begins.  Even 
as  abridged  in  the  printing,  this  immense  work 
ranks  among  the  half-dozen  longest  diaries  to 
be  found  in  any  library,  and  it  is  unquestion- 
ably by  far  the  most  valuable.  Henceforth  we 
are  to  travel  along  its  broad  route  to  the  end ; 
Ave  shall  see  in  it  both  the  great  and  the  small 
among  public  men  halting  onward  in  a way 
A’ery  different  from  that  in  which  they  march 
along  the  stately  pages  of  the  historian,  and  we 
shall  find  many  side-lights,  by  no  means  color- 
less, thrown  upon  the  persons  and  events  of  the 
procession.  The  persistence,  fulness,  and  faith- 
fidness  Avith  Avhich  it  was  kept  throughout  so 
busy  a life,  are  marvellous,  but  are  also  highly 
characteristic  of  the  most  persevering  and  in- 
dustrious of  men.  That  it  has  been  preserved 
is  cause  not  only  f^r  thankfulness  but  for  some 
lurprisc  also.  For  if  its  contents  had  been 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


9 


known,  it  is  certain  that  all  the  public  men  of 
nearly  two  generations  who  figure  in  it  would 
have  combined  into  one  vast  and  irresistible 
conspiracy  to  obtain  and  destroy  it.  There 
was  always  a superfluity  of  gall  in  the  diarist’s 
ink.  Sooner  or  later  every  man  of  any  note  in 
the  United  States  was  mentioned  in  his  pages, 
and  there  is  scarcely  one  of  them,  who,  if  he 
could  have  read  what  was  said  of  him,  would  not 
have  preferred  the  ignominy  of  omission.  As 
one  turns  the  leaves  he  feels  as  though  he  were 
walking  through  a graveyard  of  slaughtered 
reputations  wherein  not  many  headstones  show 
a few  words  of  measured  commendation.  It  is 
only  the  greatness  and  goodness  of  INIr.  Adams 
himself  which  relieve  the  universal  atmosphere 
of  sadness  far  more  depressing  than  the  mel- 
ancholy which  pervades  the  novels  of  George 
Eliot.  The  reader  who  wishes  to  retain  any 
comfortable  degree  of  belief  in  his  fellow-men 
will  turn  to  the  wall  all  the  portraits  in  the 
gallery  except  only  the  inimitable  one  of  the 
writer  himself.  For  it  would  be  altogether  too 
discouraging  to  think  that  so  wide  an  experi- 
ence of  men  as  Mr.  Adams  enjoyed  through  his 
long  varied  and  active  life,  must  lead  to  such  an 
unpleasant  array  of  human  faces  as  those  which 
are  scattered  along  these  twelve  big  octavos. 
Fortunately  at  present  we  have  to  do  with  only 


10 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


one  of  these  likenesses,  and  that  one  we  are  able 
to  admire  while  knowing  also  that  it  is  beyond 
question  accurate.  One  after  another  every 
trait  of  Mr.  Adams  comes  out;  we  shall  see 
that  he  was  a man  of  a very  high  and  noble 
character  veined  with  some,  very  notable  and 
disagreeable  blemishes ; his  aspirations  wert 
honorable,  even  the  lowest  of  them  being  mort 
than  simply  respectable ; he  had  an  avowed 
ambition  but  it  was  of  that  pure  kind  which 
led  him  to  render  true  and  distinguished  serv 
ices  to  his  countrymen ; he  was  not  only  a 
zealous  patriot  but  a profound  believer  in  the 
sound  and  practicable  tenets  of  the  liberal 
political  creed  of  the  United  States ; he  had 
one  of  the  most  honest  and  independent  natures 
that  was  ever  given  to  man  ; personal  integrity 
of  course  goes  without  saying,  but  he  had  the 
rarer  gift  of  an  elevated  and  rigid  political  hon- 
esty such  as  has  been  unfrequently  seen  in  any 
age  or  any  nation  ; in  times  of  severe  trial  this 
quality  was  even  cruelly  tested,  but  we  shall 
never  see  it  fail ; he  was  as  courageous  as  if  ho 
had  been  a fanatic ; indeed,  for  a long  part  of 
his  life  to  maintain  a single-handed  fight  in 
support  of  a despised  or  unj)opular  opinion 
seemed  his  natural  function  and  almost  exclu- 
sive calling ; he  was  thoroughly  conscientious 
and  never  knowingly  did  wrong,  nor  even 


lOnN  Q.UINCY  ADAMS. 


Bonglit  to  persuade  himself  that  wrong  was 
right ; well  read  in  literature  and  of  wide  and 
varied  information  in  nearly  all  matters  of 
knowledge,  he  was  more  especially  remarkable 
for  his  acquirements  in  the  domain  of  politicsj^ 
where  indeed  they  were  vast  and  ever  growing; 
he  had  a clear  and  generally  a cool  head,  and 
was  nearly  always  able  to  do  full  justice  to 
himself  and  to  his  cause ; he  had  an  indom- 
itable will,  unconquerable  persistence,  and  in- 
finite laboriousness.  Such  were  the  qualities 
which  made  him  a great  statesman ; but  un- 
fortunately we  must  behold  a hardly  less  strik- 
ing reverse  to  the  picture,  in  the  faults  and 
shortcomings  which  made  him  so  unpopular  in 
his  lifetime  that  posterity  is  only  just  beginning 
to  forget  the  prejudices  of  his  contemporaries 
and  to  render  concerning  him  the  judgment 
which  he  deserves.  Never  did  a man  of  pure 
life  and  just  purposes  have  fewer  friends  or 
more  enemies  than  John  Quincy  Adams.  His 
nature,  said  to  have  been  very  affectionate  in 
his  family  relations,  was  in  its  aspect  outside  of 
that  small  circle  singularly  cold  and  repellent. 
If  he  could  ever  have  gathered  even  a small 
personal  following  his  character  and  abilities 
would  have  insured  him  a brilliant  and  pro- 
onged  success ; but,  for  a man  of  his  calibre 
ind  influence,  we  shall  see  him  as  one  of  the 


12 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


most  lonely  and  desolate  of  the  great  men  of 
history ; instinct  led  the  public  men  of  his 
time  to  range  themselves  against  him  rather 
than  with  him,  and  we  shall  find  them  fighting 
beside  him  only  when  irresistibly  compelled  to 
do  so  by  policy  or  strong  convictions.  As  he 
had  little  sympathy  with  those  with  whom  he 
was  brought  in  contact,  so  he  was  very  unchar- 
itable in  his  judgment  of  them  ; and  thus  hav- 
ing really  a low  opinion  of  so  many  of  them 
he  could  indulge  his  vindictive  rancor  without 
stint ; his  invective,  always  powerful,  will  some- 
times startle  us  by  its  venom,  and  we  shall  be 
pained  to  see  him  apt  to  make  enemies  for  a 
good  cause  by  making  them  for  himself. 

This  has  been,  perhaps,  too  long  a lingering 
upon  the  threshold.  But  Mr.  Adams’s  career 
in  public  life  stretched  over  so  long  a period 
that  to  write  a full  historical  memoir  of  him 
within  the  limited  space  of  this  volume  is  im- 
possible. All  that  can  be  attempted  is  to  pre- 
sent a sketch  of  the  man  with  a few  of  his  more 
prominent  surroundings  against  a very  meagre 
and  insufficient  background  of  tho  history  of 
the  times.  So  it  may  be  permissible  to  begin 
with  a general  outline  of  his  figure,  to  be  filled 
in,  shaded,  and  colored  as  we  proceed.  At  best 
our  task  is  much  more  difficult  of  satisfactory 
achievement  than  an  historical  biography  o, 
the  ''ustoraary  elaborate  order. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


13 


During  his  second  visit  to  Europe,  our  mature 
youngster  — if  the  woi’d  may  be  used  of  Mr. 
Adams  even  in  his  earliest  years  — began  to 
Bee  a good  deal  of  the  world  and  to  mingle  in 
very  distinguished  society.  For  a brief  period 
he  got  a little  schooling,  first  at  Paris,  next  at 
Amsterdam,  and  then  at  Leyden ; altogether 
the  amount  was  insignificant,  since  he  was 
not  quite  fourteen  years  old  when  be  actually 
found  himself  engaged  in  a diplomatic  career. 
Francis  Dana,  afterward  Chief  Justice  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  then  accredited  as  an  envoy  to 
Russia  from  the  United  States,  and  he  took  Mr. 
Adams  with  him  as  his  private  secretary.  Not 
much  came  of  the  mission,  but  it  was  a valuable 
experience  for  a lad  of  his  years.  Upon  his  re- 
turn he  spent  six  months  in  travel  and  then  he 
rejoined  his  father  in  Paris,  where  that  gentle- 
man was  engaged  with  Franklin  and  Jefferson 
in  negotiating  the  final  treaty  of  peace  between 
the  revolted  colonies  and  the  mother  country. 
The  boy  “ was  at  once  enlisted  in  the  service  as 
an  additional  secretary,  and  gave  his  help  to 
the  preparation  of  the  papers  necessary  to  the 
completion  of  that  instrument  which  dispersed 
all  possible  doubt  of  the  Independence  of  his 
Country.” 

On  April  26,  1785,  arrived  the  packet  ship 
Le  Courier  de  L’Orient,  bringing  a letter  from 


14 


JOUN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


Mr.  Gerry  containing  news  of  tlie  appointment 
of  John  Adams  as  Minister  to  St.  James’s.  This 
unforeseen  occurrence  made  it  necessaiy  for  the 
younger  Adams  to  determine  Ins  own  career, 
which  apparently  he  was  left  to  do  for  liimself. 
lie  was  indeed  a singular  young  man,  not  un- 
worthy of  such  confidence ! The  glimpses  which 
we  get  of  him  during  this  stay  abroad,  show  him 
as  the  associate  upon  terms  of  equality  with 
grown  men  of  marked  ability  and  exercising 
imjjortant  functions.  He  preferred  diplomacy 
to  dissipation,  statesmen  to  mistresses,  and  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  temptations  of  the  gayest 
capital  in  the  world,  the  chariness  with  which 
he  sprinkled  his  wild  oats  amid  the  alluring 
gardens  chiefly  devoted  to  the  culture  of  those 
cereals,  might  well  have  brought  a blush  to  the 
cheeks  of  some  among  his  elders,  at  least  if  the 
tongue  of  slander  wags  not  with  gross  untruth 
concerning  the  colleagues  of  John  Adams.  But 
he  was  not  in  Europe  to  amuse  himself,  though 
at  an  age  when  amusement  is  natural  and  a 
tinge  of  sinfulness  is  so  often  pardoned ; he  was 
there  with  the  definite  and  persistent  purpose 
of  steady  improvement  and  acquisition.  At  his 
age  most  young  men  play  the  cards  which  a 
kind  fortune  puts  into  their  hands,  with  the 
reckless  intent  only  of  immediate  gain,  buf 
from  the  earliest  moment  when  he  began  the 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


15 


game  of  life  Adams  coolly  and  wisely  husbanded 
every  card  wliicli  came  into  his  hand,  with  a 
steady  view  to  probable  future  contingencies, 
and  with  the  resolve  to  win  in  the  long  run. 
So  now  the  resolution  which  he  took  in  tire 
present  question  illustrated  the  clearness  of 
his  mind  and  the  strength  of  his  character. 
To  go  with  his  father  to  England  would  be  to 
enjoy  a life  precisely  fitted  to  his  natural  and 
acquired  tastes,  to  mingle  with  the  men  who 
were  making  history,  to  be  cognizant  of  the 
weightiest  of  public  affairs,  to  profit  by  all  that 
the  grandest  city  in  the  world  had  to  show. 
It  was  easy  to  be  not  only  allured  by  the  pros- 
pect but  also  to  be  deceived  by  its  apparent 
advantages.  Adams,  however,  had  the  sense 
and  courage  to  turn  his  back  on  it,  and  to  go 
home  to  the  meagre  shores  and  small  society  of 
jSTew  England,  there  to  become  a boy  again,  to 
enter  Harvard  College,  and  come  under  all  its  at 
that  time  rigid  and  petty  regulations.  It  almost 
seems  a mistake,  but  it  was  not.  Already  he 
was  too  ripe  and  too  wise  to  blunder.  He  him- 
self gives  us  his  characteristic  and  sufficient 
reasons : — 

“ Were  I now  to  go  with  my  father  probably  my 
immediate  satisfaction  might  be  greater  than  it  will 
be  in  returning  to  America.  After  having  been 
travelling  for  these  seven  years  almost  and  all  over 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Europe,  and  having  been  in  the  world  and  among 
company  for  three ; to  return  to  spend  one  or  two 
years  in  the  pale  of  a college,  subjected  to  all  the 
rules  which  I have  so  long  been  freed  from ; and 
afterwards  not  expect  (however  good  an  opinion  I 
may  have  of  myself)  to  bring  myself  into  notice 
under  three  or  four  years  more,  if  ever ! It  is  really 
a prospect  somewhat  discouraging  for  a youth  of  my 
ambition,  (for  I have  ambition  though  I hope  its  ob- 
ject is  laudable).  But  still 

‘ Oh ! how  wretched 

‘ Is  that  poor  man,  that  hangs  on  Princes’  favors,’ 

or  on  those  of  any  body  else.  I am  determined  that 
so  long  as  I shall  be  able  to  get  my  own  living  in  an 
honorable  manner,  I will  depend  upon  no  one.  My 
father  has  been  so  much  taken  up  all  his  lifetime 
with  the  interests  of  the  public,  that  his  own  fortune 
has  suffered  by  it : so  that  his  children  will  have  to 
provide  for  themselves,  which  I shall  never  be  able 
to  do  if  I loiter  away  my  precions  time  in  Europe 
and  shun  going  home  until  I am  forced  to  it.  AVith 
an  ordinary  share  of  common  sense,  which  I hope  I 
enjoy,  at  least  in  America  I can  live  independent  and 
free  ; and  rather  than  live  otherwise  I would  wish  to 
die  before  the  time  when  I shall  be  left  at  my  own 
discretion.  I have  before  me  a striking  example  of 
the  distressing  and  humiliating  situation  a person  is 
reduced  to  by  adopting  a different  line  of  conduct, 
and  I am  determined  not  to  fall  into  the  same  error.” 

It  13  needless  to  comment  upon  such  spirit 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


17 


and  sense,  or  upon  such  just  appreciation  oi 
what  was  feasible,  wise,  and  right  for  him,  as 
a New  Englander  whose  surroundings  and  pros- 
pects were  widely  dilferent  from  those  of  the 
society  about  him.  He  must  have  been  strongly 
imbued  by  nature  with  the  instincts  of  his  birth 
place  to  have  formed,  after  a seven  3mars’  ab- 
sence at  his  impressible  age,  so  correct  a judg- 
ment of  the  necessities  and  possibilities  of  his 
own  career  in  relationship  to  the  people  and 
ideas  of  his  own  country. 

Home  accordingly  he  came,  and  by  assiduity 
prepared  himself  in  a very  short  time  to  enter 
■the  junior  class  at  Harvard  College,  whence 
he  was  graduated  in  high  standing  in  1787. 
From  there  he  \went  to  Newburyport,  then  a 
thriving  and  active  seaport  enriched  by  the 
noble  trade  of  privateering  in  addition  to  more 
regular  maritime  business,  and  entered  as  a 
law  student  the  office  of  Theophilus  Parsons, 
afterwards  the  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts. 
On  July  15, 1790,  being  twenty-three  years  old, 
he  was  admitted  to  practise.  Immediately 
afterward  he  established  himself  in  Boston, 
where  for  a time  he  felt  strangely  solitary. 
Clients  of  course  lid  not  besiege  his  doors  in 
the  first  year,  and  he  appears  tc  have  waited 
rather  stubbornly  than  cheerfully  for  more  act- 
ive days.  These  came  in  good  time,  and  during 


18 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  second,  third,  and  fourth  years,  his  business 
grew  apace  to  encouraging  dimensions. 

He  was,  however,  doing  other  work  than 
that  of  the  law,  and  much  more  important  in 
its  bearing  upon  his  future  career.  He  could 
not  keep  his  thoughts,  nor  indeed  his  hands, 
from  public  affairs.  When,  in  1791,  Thomas 
Paine  pi’oduced  the  “ Rights  of  Man,”  Thomas 
Jefferson  acting  as  midwife  to  usher  the  bant- 
ling before  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
Adams’s  indignation  was  fired,  and  he  pub- 
lished anonymously  a series  of  refuting  pa- 
pers over  the  signature  of  Publicola.  These 
atti'acted  much  attention,  not  only  at  home 
but  also  abroad,  and  were  by  many  attributed 
to  John  Adams.  Two  years  later,  during  the 
excitement  aroused  by  the  reception  and  sub- 
sequent outrageous  behavior  here  of  the  French 
minister.  Genet,  hlr.  Adams  again  published 
in  the  Boston  “ Centinel  ” some  papers  over  the 
signatui’e  of  Marcellus,  discussing  with  much 
ability  the  then  new  and  perplexing  question  of 
the  neutrality  which  should  be  observed  by  this 
country  in  European  wars.  These  were  fol- 
lowed by  more,  over  the  signature  of  Colum- 
bus, and  afterward  by  still  more  in  the  name  of 
Barnevelt,  all  strongly  reprobating  the  coui’se 
of  the  crazy-headed  foreigner’.  The  writer  was 
not  permitted  to  remain  long  unknown.  It  ii 


JOn^^  QUINCY  ADAMS 


19 


not  certain,  but  it  is  highly  probable,  that  to 
these  articles  was  due  the  nomination  which 
Mr.  Adams  received  shortly  afterward  from 
President  Washington,  as  Minister  Resident  at 
the  Hague.  This  nomination  was  sent  in  to  the 
Senate,  May  29,  1794,  and  was  unanimously 
confirmed  on  the  followi)ig  day.  It  may  be 
imagined  that  the  change  from  the  moderate 
practice  of  his  Boston  law  office  to  a European 
court,  of  which  he  so  well  knew  the  charms, 
was  not  distasteful  to  him.  There  ai’e  pas- 
sages in  his  Diary  which  indicate  that  he  had 
been  chafing  with  irrepressible  impatience  “ in 
that  state  of  useless  and  disgi’aceful  insignifi 
eanc3%”  to  which,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  he  was  rel- 
egated,  so  that  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  when 
“many  of  the  characters  who  were  born  for  the 
benefit  of  their  fellow  creatures,  have  rendered 
themselves  conspicuous  among  their  contempo- 
raries, ...  I still  find  myself  as  obscure,  as  un- 
known to  the  world,  as  the  most  indolent  or  the 
most  stupid  of  human  beings.”  Entertaining 
such  a restless  ambition,  he  of  course  accepted 
the  proffered  office,  though  not  without  some 
expression  of  unexplained  doubt.  October  31, 
1794,  found  him  at  the  Hague,  after  a voyage 
of  considerable  peril  in  a leaky  ship,  commanded 
ry  a blundering  captain.  He  was  a young  dip- 
lomat, indeed  ; it  was  cn  his  twenty-seventh 
birthday  that  he  received  his  commission. 


20 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


The  minister  made  his  advent  upon  a tu- 
multuons  scene.  All  Europe  was  getting  under 
arms  in  the  long  and  desperate  struggle  with 
France.  Scarcely  had  he  presented  his  cre- 
dentials to  the  Stadtholder  ere  that  dignitary 
was  obliged  to  flee  before  the  conquering  stand- 
ards of  the  French.  Pichegru  marched  into 
the  capital  city  of  the  Low  Countries,  hung  out 
the  tri-color  and  established  the  “ Batavian 
Republic  ” as  the  ally  of  France.  The  diplo- 
matic representatives  of  most  of  the  European 
powers  forthwith  left,  and  Mr.  Adams  was 
strongly  moved  to  do  the  same,  though  for 
reasons  different  from  those  which  actuated 
his  compeers.  He  was  not,  like  them,  placed 
in  an  unpleasant  position  by  the  new  condition 
of  affairs,  but  on  the  contrary  he  was  very  cor- 
dially treated  by  the  French  and  their  Dutch 
partisans,  and  was  obliged  to  fall  back  upon  his 
native  prudence  to  resist  their  compromising 
overtures  and  dangerous  friendship.  Without 
giving  offence  he  yet  kept  clear  of  entangle- 
ments, and  showed  a degree  of  wisdom  and 
skill  which  many  older  and  more  experienced 
Americans  failed  to  evince,  either  abroad  or 
at  home,  during  these  exciting  years.  But  he 
appeared  to  be  left  without  occupation  in  the 
altered  condition  of  affairs,  and  therefore  was 
considering  the  propriety  of  returning,  when  ad 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMb. 


21 


rices  from  home  induced  him  to  stay.  Wash- 
ington especially  wrote  that  he  must  not  think 
of  retiring,  and  prophesied  that  he  would  soon 
be  “ found  at  the  head  of  the  diplomatic  corps, 
be  the  government  administered  by  whomsoever 
the  people  may  choose.”  He  remained,  there- 
fore, at  the  Hague,  a shrewd  and  close  observer 
of  the  exciting  events  occurring  around  him. 
industriously  pursuing  an  extensive  course  of 
stild^  and  reading,  making  useful  acquaint- 
ances, acquiring  familiarity  with  foreign  lan- 
guages, with  the  usages  of  diplomacy,  and  the 
habits  of  dietinguished  society.  He  had  little 
public  business  to  transact,  it  is  true ; but  at 
least  his  time  was  well  spent  for  his  own  im- 
provement. 

An  episode  in  his  life  at  the  Hague  was  his 
visit  to  England,  where  he  was  directed  to  ex- 
change ratifications  of  the  treaty  lately  nego- 
tiated by  hlr.  Jay.  But  a series  of  vexatious 
delays,  apparently  maliciously  contrived,  de- 
tained him  so  long  that  upon  his  arrival  he 
found  this  specific  task  already  accomplished 
b}’-  j\Ir.  Deas.  He  was  probably  not  disap- 
pointed that  his  name  thus  escaped  connection 
uith  engagements  so  odious  to  a large  part  of 
the  nation.  He  had,  however,  some  further 
business  of  an  informal  character  to  transact 
with  Lord  Grenville,  and  in  endeavoring  to 


22 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


conduct  it  found  himself  rather  awkwardly 
placed.  He  was  not  minister  to  the  Court  of 
St.  James,  having  been  only  vaguely  authorized 
to  discuss  certain  arrangements  in  a tentative 
way,  without  the  power  to  enter  into  any  de^ 
finitive  agreement.  But  the  English  Cabinet 
sti'ongly  disliking  Mr.  Deas,  who  in  the  ab- 
sence of  Mr.  Pinckney  represented  for  the 
time  the  United  States,  and  much  preferring 
to  negotiate  with  Mr.  Adams,  sought  by  many 
indirect  and  artful  subterfuges  to  thrust  upon 
him  the  character  of  a regularly  accredited 
minister.  He  had  much  ado  to  avoid,  without 
offence,  the  assumption  of  functions  to  which 
he  had  no  title,  but  which  were  with  designing 
courtesy  forced  upon  him.  His  cool  and  mod- 
erate temper,  however,  carried  him  successfully 
:brough  the  whole  business,  alike  in  its  social 
and  its  diplomatic  aspect. 

Another  negotiation,  of  a private  nature  also, 
he  brought  to  a successful  issue  during  these  few 
months  in  London.  He  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Miss  Louisa  Catherine  Johnson,  daughter 
of  Joshua  Johnson,  then  American  Consul  at 
TiOndon,  and  niece  of  that  Governor  Johnson  of 
Maryland  who  had  signed  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  was  afterwards  placed  on 
the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  To  this  lady  he  became  engaged;  and 


jonx  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


23 


returning  not  long  afterward  he  was  married 
to  her  on  July  26,  1797.  It  was  a thoroughly 
bappy  and,  for  him,  a life-long  union. 

President  Washington,  toward  the  close  of 
bis  second  term,  transferred  J\Ir.  Adams  to  the 
Court  of  Portugal.  But  before  his  departure 
thither  his  destination  was  changed.  Some  de- 
gree of  embarrassment  was  felt  about  this  time 
concerning  his  further  continuance  in  public 
office,  by  reason  of  his  father’s  accession  to  the 
Presidency.  He  wrote  to  his  mother  a manly 
and  spirited  letter,  rebuking  her  for  carelessly 
dropping  an  expression  indicative  of  a fear  that 
he  might  look  for  some  favor  at  his  father’s 
hands.  He  could  neither  solicit  nor  expect  any- 
tliing,  he  justly  said,  and  he  was  pained  that 
his  mother  should  not  know  him  better  than  to 
entertain  any  apprehension  of  his  feeling  other- 
wise. It  was  a perplexing  position  in  which 
the  two  were  placed.  It  would  be  a great  hard- 
ship to  cut  short  the  son’s  career  because  of  the 
success  of  the  father,  yet  the  reproach  of  nepo- 
tism could  not  be  lightly  encountered,  even  with 
the  backing  of  clear  consciences.  Washington 
■iame  kindly  to  the  aid  of  his  doubting  snc- 
■ essoi’,  and  in  a letter  highly  complimentary  to 
Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams  strongly  ui'ged  that 
?rell-merited  promotion  ought  not  to  be  kept 
from  him,  foretelling  for  him  a distinguished 


24 


JOnN  CLUhSLl  ADAMS. 


futui’e  in  the  diplomatic  service.  These  repre- 
sentations prevailed ; and  the  President’s  only 
action  as  concerned  his  son  consisted  in  chang- 
ing his  destination  from  Portugal  to  Prussia, 
both  missions  being  at  that  time  of  the  same 
grade,  though  that  to  Prussia  was  then  estab- 
lished for  the  first  time  by  the  making  and  con- 
firming of  this  nomination. 

To  Berlin,  accordingly,  Mr.  Adams  proceeded 
in  November,  1797,  and  had  the  somewhat  cruel 
experience  of  being  “ questioned  at  the  gates 
by  a dapper  lieutenant,  who  did  not  know,  until 
one  of  his  private  soldiers  explained  to  him,  who 
the  United  States  of  America  were.”  Overcom- 
ing this  unusual  obstacle  to  a ministerial  ad- 
vent, and  succeeding,  after  many  months,  in  get- 
ting through  all  the  introductory  formalities,  he 
found  not  much  more  to  be  done  at  Berlin  than 
there  had  been  at  the  Hague.  But  such  useful 
work  as  was  open  to  him  he  accomplished  in  the 
shape  of  a treaty  of  amity  and  commerce  be- 
tween Prussia  and  the  United  States.  This 
having  been  duly  ratified  by  both  the  powers, 
his  further  stay  seemed  so  useless  that  he  wrote 
home  suggesting  his  readiness  to  return  ; and 
while  awaiting  a reply  he  travelled  through  some 
portions  of  Europe  which  he  had  not  before 
seen.  His  recall  was  one  of  the  last  acts  of  his 
fathei 's  administration,  made,  says  Mr.  Seward 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


25 


‘that  Mr.  Jefferson  might  have  no  embarrass- 
ment in  that  direction,”  but  quite  as  probably- 
dictated  by  a vindictive  desire  to  show  how  wide 
was  the  gulf  of  animosity  which  had  opened  be- 
tween the  family  of  the  disappointed  ex-Presi- 
dent  and  his  triumphant  rival. 

Mr.  Adams,  immediately  upon  his  arrival  at 
home,  prepared  to  return  to  the  practice  of  his 
profession.  It  was  not  altogether  an  agreeable 
transition  from  an  embass}^  at  the  courts  of  Eu- 
rope to  a law  office  in  Boston,  with  the  neces- 
sity of  furbishing  up  long  disused  knowledge, 
and  a second  time  patiently’-  awaiting  the  inffiix 
of  clients.  But  he  faced  it  with  his  stubborn 
temper  and  practical  sense.  . The  slender  prom- 
ise which  he  was  able  to  discern  in  the  political 
outlook  could  not  fail  to  disappoint  him,  since 
his  native  predilections  were  unquestionably  and 
strongly’  in  favor  of  a public  career.  During 
his  absence  party  animosities  had  been  develop- 
ing rapidly.  The  first  great  party  victory  since 
the  organization  of  the  government  had  just 
been  won,  after  a very’  bitter  struggle,  by  the  Re- 
publicans or  Democrats,  as  they  were  then  in- 
differently called,  wiles’^  exuoerant  delight  found 
its  full  counterpart  in  the  angry’  despondency 
of  the  Federalists.  That  irascible  old  gentle- 
aan,  the  elder  Adams,  having  experienced  a 
very  Waterloo  defeat  in  the  contest  for  the  Pres 


26 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Idency,  had  ridden  away  from  the  capital,  actU' 
iilly  in  a wild  rage,  on  the  night  of  the  3d  of 
March,  1801,  to  avoid  the  humiliating  pageant 
of  Mr.  Jefferson’s  inauguration.  Yet  far  more 
fierce  than  this  natural  party  warfare  was  the 
internal  dissension  which  rent  the  Federal  party 
in  twain.  Those  cracks  upon  the  surface  and 
subterraneous  rumblings,  which  the  experienced 
observer  could  for  some  time  have  noted,  had 
opened  with  terrible  uproar  into  a gaping 
^ chasm,  when  John  Adams,  still  in  the  Presi- 
dency, suddenly  announced  his  determination  to 
send  a mission  to  France  at  a crisis  when  nearly 
all  his  party  were  looking  for  war.  Perhaps 
this  step  was,  as  his  admirers  claim,  an  act 
of  pure  and  disinterested  statesmanship.  Cer- 
tainly its  result  Avas  fortunate  for  the  country 
at  large.  But  for  John  Adams  it  was  ruinous. 
At  the  moment  when  he  made  the  bold  move, 
he  doubtless  expected  to  be  followed  by  his 
party.  Extreme  was  his  disappointment  and 
boundless  his  wrath,  when  he  found  that  he  had 
at  his  back  only  a fraction,  not  improbably  less 
than  half,  of  that  party.  He  learned  with  in- 
finite chagrin  that  he  had  only  a divided  empire 
with  a private  individual ; that  it  was  not  safe 
for  him,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  to 
originate  any  Important  measure  Avithout  first 
sonsulting  a lawyer  quietly  engaged  in  th« 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


27 


practice  of  his  profession  in  New  York;  that, 
in  short,  at  least  a moiety,  in  which  were  to  be 
found  the  most  intelligent  members,  of  the  great 
Federal  party,  when  in  search  of  guidance, 
turned  their  faces  toward  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton rather  than  toward  John  Adams.  These 
Hamiltonians  by  no  means  relished  the  French 
mission,  so  that  from  this  time  forth  a schism  of 
intense  bitterness  kept  the  Federal  party  asun- 
der, and  John  Adams  hated  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton with  a vigor  not  surpassed  in  the  annals  of 
human  antipathies.  His  rage  was  not  assuaged 
by  the  conduct  of  this  dreaded  foe  in  the  presi- 
dential campaign ; and  the  defeated  candidate 
always  preferred  to  charge  his  failure  to  Ham- 
ilton’s machinations  rather  than  to  the  real  will 
of  the  people.  This,  however,  was  unfair;  it 
was  perfectly  obvious  that  a majority  of  the 
nation  had  embraced  Jeffersonian  tenets,  and 
that  Federalism  was  moribund. 

To  this  condition  of  affairs  John  Quincy 
Adams  returned.  Fortunately  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  bear  no  part  in  the  embroilments  of 
the  past,  and  his  sagacity  must  have  led  him, 
while  listening  with  filial  sympathy  to  the  inter- 
pretations placed  upon  events  by  his  incensed 
parent,  yet  to  make  liberal  allowance  for  the  dis- 
torting effects  of  the  old  gentleman’s  rage.  Still 
T was  in  the  main  onh^  natural  for  him  to  i*e- 


28 


JOIIN  QOJNCr  ADAMS. 


gard  himself  as  a Federalist  of  the  Adams  fac- 
tion. His  proclivities  had  always  been  with  that 
party.  In  Massachusetts  the  educated  and  well- 
to-do  classes  were  almost  unanimously  of  that 
way  of  thinking.  The  select  coterie  of  gentle- 
men in  the  State,  who  in  those  times  bore  an  ac- 
tive and  influential  part  in  politics,  were  nearly 
all  Hamiltonians,  but  the  adherents  of  President 
Adams  were  numerically  strong.  Nor  was  the 
younger  Adams  himself  long  left  without  his 
private  grievance  against  Mr.  Jefferson,  who 
promptly  used  the  authority  vested  in  him  by  a 
new  statute  to  remove  Mr.  Adams  from  the  po 
sition  of  commissioner  in  bankruptcy,  to  which, 
at  the  time  of  his  resuming  business,  he  had  beer, 
appointed  by  the  judge  of  the  district  court. 
Long  afterward  Jefferson  sought  to  escape  the 
odium  of  this  appai'ently  malicious  and,  for 
those  days,  unusual  action,  by  a very  Jefferson- 
ian explanation,  tolerably  satisfactory  to  those 
persons  who  believed  it. 

^ On  April  5,  1802,  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen 

' by  the  Federalists  of  Boston  to  represent  them 
in  the  State  Senate.  The  oflSce  was  at  that 
time  still  sought  by  men  of  the  best  ability  and 
position,  and  though  it  was  hardly  a step  up- 
ward on  the  political  ladder  for  one  who  had 
represented  the  nation  in  foreign  parts  for  eight 
years,  yet  Mr.  Adams  was  well  content  to  ao 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


2J^ 

cept  it.  At  least  it  reopened  the  door  of  p/> 
litical  life,  and  moreover  one  of  his  steadfa.*/ 
maxims  was  never  to  refuse  any  functioii  whu  ft 
the  people  sought  to  impose  upon  him.  It  is 
worth  noting,  for  its  bearing  upon  controver- 
sies soon  to  be  encountered  in  this  narrative, 
that  forty-eight  hours  had  not  elapsed  after  IMr. 
Adams  had  taken  his  seat  before  he  ventured 
upon  a display  of  independence  which  caused 
much  irritation  to  his  Federalist  associates.  He 
had  the  hardihood  to  propose  that  the  Federalist 
majority  in  the  legislature  should  permit  the 
Republican  minority  to  enjoy  a proportional 
representation  in  the  council.  “It  was  the  first 
act  of  my  legislative  life,”  he  wrote  many  years 
afterward,  “ and  it  marked  the  principle  by 
which  my  whole  public  life  has  been  governed 
from  that  day  to  this.  IMy  proposal  was  unsuc- 
cessful, and  perhaps  it  forfeited  whatever  con- 
fidence might  have  been  otlierwise  bestowed 
upon  me  as  a party  follower.”  Indeed,  all  his 
life  long  Mr.  Adams  was  never  submissive  to 
the  party  whip,  but  voted  upon  every  question 
precisely  according  to  his  opinion  of  its  merits, 
without  the  slightest  regard  to  the  political 
company  in  which  for  the  time  being  he  might 
find  himself.  A compeer  of  his  in  the  United 
States  Senate  once  said  of  him,  that  he  regarded 
«veiy  public  measure  which  came  up  as  he 


BO 


JOHN  QUmCY  ADAMS. 


would  a proposition  in  Euclid,  abstracted  from 
Euv  party  considerations.  These  frequent  dere- 
lictions of  bis  were  at  first  forgiven  with  a 
magnanimity  realh"  very  creditable,  so  long  as 
it  lasted,  especially  to  the  Hamiltonians  in  the 
Federal  party;  and  so  liberal  was  this  forbear- 
ance that  when  in  February,  1803,  the  legis- 
lature had  to  elect  a Senator  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  he  was  chosen  upon  the  fourth 
ballot  b}'  86  votes  out  of  171.  This  was  the 
more  gratifying  to  him  and  the  more  handsome 
on  the  part  of  the  anti- Adams  men  in  the  party, 
because  the  place  was  eagerly  sought  by  Tim- 
othy Pickering,  an  old  man  who  had  strong 
claims  growing  out  of  an  almost  life-long  and 
very  efiicient  service  in  their  ranks,  and  who 
was  moreover  a most  staunch  adherent  of  Gen- 
eral Hamilton. 

So  in  October,  1803,  we  find  Mr.  Adams  on 
his  way  to  Washington,  the  raw  and  unattract- 
ive village  which  then  constituted  the  national 
capital,  wherein  there  was  not,  as  the  pious 
New  Englander  instantly  noted,  a church  of 
any  denomination ; but  those  who  were  relig- 
iously disposed  were  obliged  to  attend  services 
“ usually  performed  on  Sundays  at  the  Treasury 
Oflice  and  at  the  Capitol.”  With  what  antici- 
pations Mr.  Adams’s  mind  was  filled  durhig  hi| 
murney  to  this  embryotic  city  his  Diary  does 


JOEX  QUJXCY  AEAES. 


31 


not  tell ; but  if  they  were  in  any  degree  cheer- 
ful or  sanguine  they  were  destined  to  cruel 
disappointment.  He  was  now  probably  to  ap- 
preciate for  the  first  time  the  fierce  vigor  of 
the  hostility  which  his  father  had  excited.  In 
INIassachusetts  social  connections  and  friendships 
probably  mitigated  the  open  display  of  rancor 
to  which  in  Washington  full  sway  was  given. 
It  was  not  only  the  Republican  majority  who 
showed  feelings  which  in  them  were  at  least  fair 

O 

if  they  were  strong,  but  the  Federal  minority 
were  maliciously  pleased  to  find  in  the  son  of 
the  ill-starred  John  Adams  a victim  on  whom 
to  vent  that  spleen  and  abuse  which  were  so 
provokingly  ineffective  against  the  solid  work- 
ing majority  of  their  opponents  in  Congress. 
The  Republicans  trampled  upon  the  Federalists, 
and  the  Federalists  trampled  on  John  Quincy 
Adams.  He  spoke  seldom,  and  certainly  did 
not  weary  the  Senators,  yef  whenever  he  rose 
to  his  feet  he  was  sure  of  a cold,  too  often 
almost  an  insulting,  reception.  By  no  chance 
or  possibility  could  anything  which  he  said  or 
suggested  please  his  prejudiced  auditors.  The 
worst  augury  for  any  measure  was  his  support ; 
any  motion  which  he  made  was  sure  to  be  voted 
down,  though  not  unfmquently  substantially 
the  same  matter  being  afterward  moved  by 
somebody  else  would  be  readily  carried.  That 


32 


JOHN  QUIKCY  ADAMS. 


cordialit}',  assistance,  and  sense  of  fellowship 
whicli  Senators  from  the  same  State  customarily 
expect  and  obtain  from  eacb  other  could  not  be 
enjoyed  by  him.  For  shortly  after  his  arrival 
in  Washington,  Mr.  Pickering  had  been  chosen 
to  fill  a vacancy  in  the  other  Massachusetts 
senatorship,  and  appeared  upon  the  scene  as  a 
most  unwelcome  colleague.  For  a time,  indeed, 
an  outward  semblance  of  political  comradeship 
was  maintained  between  them,  but  it  would 
have  been  folly  for  an  Adams  to  put  faith  in  a 
Pickering,  and  perhaps  vice  versa.  This  position 
of  his,  as  the  unpopular  member  of  an  un- 
popular minority,  could  not  be  misunderstood, 
and  many  allusions  to  it  occur  in  his  Diary. 
Gnh  day  he  notes  a motion  rejected ; another 
day,  that  he  has  “ nothing  to  do  but  to  make 
fruitless  opposition  ; ” he  constantly  recites  that 
he  has  voted  with  a small  minority^,  and  at 
least  once  he  himSelf  composed  the  whole  of 
that  minority;  soon  after  his  arrival  he  says 
that  an  amendment  proposed  by  him  “ will 
certainly  not  pass;  ajid,  indeed,  I have  already 
seen  enough  to  ascertain  that  no  amendments 
of  my  proposing  will  obtain  in  the  Senate  as 
now  filled  ” ; again,  “ I j^resented  my  three 
resolutions,  ■which  raised  a storm  as  violent  as 
i expected  ” ; and  on  the  same  day"  he  wi'ites 
I have  no  doubt  of  incurring  much  censure 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


33 


and  obloquy  for  this  measure  ; ” a day  or  two 
later  be  speaks  of  certain  persons  “who  hate 
me  rather  more  than  they  love  any  principle ; ” 
when  he  expressed  an  ojDinion  in  favor  of  ratify- 
ing a treaty  with  the  Creeks,  he  remarks  quite 
philosophically,  that  he  believes  it  “surprised 
almost  every  member  of  the  Senate,  and  dis- 
satisfied almost  all ; ” when  he  wanted  a com- 
mittee raised  he  did  not  move  it  himself,  but 
suggested  the  idea  to  another  Senator,  for  “ I 
knew  that  if  I moved  it  a spirit  of  jealousy 
would  immediately  be  raised  against  doing  any- 
thincr.”  W riting  once  of  some  resolutions  which 

O O 

he  intended  to  propose,  he  says  that  they  are 
“another  feather  against  a whirlwind.  A des- 
perate and  fearful  cause  in  which  I have  em- 
barked, but  I must  pursue  it  or  feel  myself 
either  a coward  or  a traitor.”  Another  time  we 
find  a committee,  of  which  he  was  a member, 
making  its  report  when  he  had  not  even  been 
notified  of  its  meetina;. 

It  would  be  idle  to  suppose  that  any  man 
could  be  sufficiently  callous  not  to  feel  keenly 
such  treatment.  Mr.  Adams  was  far  from  callous 
and  he  felt  it  deeply.  But  he  was  not  crushed 
or  discouraged  by  it,  as  weaker  spirits  would 
have  been,  nor  betrayed  into  any  acts  of  foolish 
anger  which  must  have  recoiled  upon  himself. 
In  him  warm  feelings  were  found  in  singular 
3 


34 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


combination  witli  a cool  head.  An  unyielding 
temper  and  an  obstinate  courage,  an  invincible 
confidence  in  his  own  judgment,  and  a stern 
conscientiousness  carried  him  through  these 
earlier  years  of  severe  trial  as  they  had  after- 
wards to  cari’y  him  through  many  more.  “ Taa 
qualities  of  mind  most  peculiarly  called  for,” 
he  reflects  in  the  Diary,  “ are  firmness,  per- 
severance, patience,  coolness,  and  forbearance. 
The  prospect  is  not  promising ; yet  the  part 
to  act  may  be  as  honorably  performed  as  if 
success  could  attend  it.”  He  understood  the 
situation  perfectly  and  met  it  with  a better 
skill  than  that  of  the  veteran  politician.  By  a 
long  and  tedious  but  sure  process  he  forced  his 
way  to  steadily  increasing  influence,  and  by  the 
close  of  his  fourth  year  we  find  him  taking  a 
part  in  the  business  of  the  Senate  which  may 
be  fairly  called  jJrominent  and  important.  He 
was  conquering  success. 

But  if  Mr.  Adams’s  unpopularity  was  partly 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  the  son  of  his  fa- 
ther, it  was  also  largely  attributable  not  only 
to  his  unconciliatory  manners  but  to  more  sub- 
Btantial  habits  of  mind  and  character.  It  is 
probably  impossible  for  any  public  man,  really 
independent  in  his  political  action,  to  lead  a 
very  comfortable  life  amid  the  struggles  of  party 
Under  the  disadvantages  involved  in  this  habit 


JOIIX  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


35 


Mr.  Adams  labored  to  a remarkable  degree. 
Since  parties  were  first  organized  in  tuis  Re- 
public no  American  statesman  bas  ever  ap- 
proached him  in  persistent  freedom  of  thought, 
speech,  and  action.  He  was  regarded  as  a 
Federalist,  but  his  Federalism  was  subject  to 
many  modifications;  the  members  of  that  party 
never  were  sure  of  his  adherence,  and  felt 
bound  to  him  by  no  very  strong  ties  of  polit- 
ical fellowship.  Towards  the  close  of  his  sen- 
atorial term  he  recorded,  in  reminiscence,  that 
he  had  more  often  voted  with  the  administra- 
tion than  with  the  opposition. 

The  first  matter  of  importance  concerning 
which  he  was  obliged  to  act,  was  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Louisiana  and  its  admission  as  a state 
of  the  Union.  The  Federalists  were  bitterly  op- 
posed to  this  measure,  regarding  it  as  an  undue 
strengthening  of  the  South  and  of  the  slavery 
infiuence,  to  the  destruction  of  the  fair  balance 
of  power  between  the  two  great  sections  of  the 
country.  It  was  not  then  the  moral  aspect  of 
the  slavery  element  which  stirred  the  northern 
temper,  but  only  the  antagonism  of  interests 
between  the  commercial  cities  of  the  North  and 
the  agricultural  communities  of  the  South.  In 
the  discussions  and  votes  which  took  place  in 
this  business  Mr.  Adams  was  in  favor  of  the 
purchase,  but  denied  with  much  emphasis  the 


36 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


constitutionality  of  tlie  process  by  which  the 
purchased  territory  was  brought  into  the  fel 
lowsliip  of  States.  This  imperfect  allegiance 
to  the  party  gave  more  offence  than  satisfac* 
tion,  and  he  found  himself  soundly  berated  in 
leading  Federalist  newspapers  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  angrily  threatened  with  expulsion 
from  the  party.  But  in  the  famous  impeach- 
ment of  Judge  Chase,  which  aroused  very 
strong  feelings,  Mr.  Adams  was  fortunately 
able  to  vote  for  acquittal.  He  regarded  this 
measure,  as  well  as  tlie  impeachment  of  Judge 
Pickering  at  the  preceding  session  as  parts  of 
an  elaborate  scheme  on  the  part  of  the  Presi- 
dent for  degrading  the  national  judiciary  and 
rendering  it  subservient  to  the  legislative 
branch  of  the  government.  So  many,  how- 
ever, even  of  Mr.  Jefferson’s  staunch  adherents 
revolted  against  his  requisitions  on  this  occa- 
sion, and  he  liimself  so  far  lost  heart  before 
the  final  vote  was  taken,  that  several  Repub- 
licans voted  with  the  Federalists,  and  Mr.  Ad- 
ams could  hardly  claim  much  credit  with  his 
party  for  standing  by  them  in  this  emergency. 

It  takes  a long  while  for  such  a man  to  se- 
cure respect,  and  great  ability  for  him  ever  to 
achieve  influence.  In  time,  however,  Mr.  Ad- 
ams saw  gratifying  indications  that  he  was  ac- 
quiring  both,  and  in  February,  1806,  we  fun; 
him  writing : — 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


37 


“ This  is  the  third  session  I have  sat  in  Congress. 
I came  in  as  a member  of  a very  small  minority,  and 
durinf^  the  two  former  sessions  almost  uniformly 
avoided  to  take  a lead ; any  other  course  would  have 
been  dishonest  or  ridiculous.  On  the  very  few  and 
unimportant  objects  which  I did  undertake,  I met 
at  first  with  universal  opposition.  The  last  session 
my  influence  rose  a little,  at  the  present  it  has  hith- 
erto been  apparently  rising.” 

He  ■was  so  far  a cool  and  clear-headed  judge, 
even  in  his  own  case,  that  this  encouraging  es- 
timate may  be  accepted  as  correct  upon  his 
sole  authority  without  other  evidence.  But  tlie 
fair  prospect  was  overcast  almost  in  its  da’wn- 
ing,  and  a period  of  supreme  trial  and  of  ap- 
parently irretrievable  ruin  was  at  hand. 

Topics  were  coming  forward  for  discussion 
concerning  which  no  American  could  be  indif- 
ferent, and  no  man  of  Mr.  Adams’s  spirit  could 
be  silent.  The  policy  of  Great  Britain  towards 
this  country,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
to  be  met,  stirred  profound  feelings  and  opened 
such  fierce  dissensions  as  it  is  now  difficult  to 
appreciate.  For  a brief  time  Mr.  Adams  was 
to  be  a prominent  actor  before  the  people.  It 
is  fortunately  needless  to  repeat,  as  it  must 
ever  be  painful  to  remember,  the  familiar  and 
too  humiliating  tale  of  the  part  which  France 
and  England  were  permitted  for  so  many  years 


38 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


to  play  in  our  national  politics,  wlien  our  par- 
ties were  not  divided  upon  American  questions, 
but  wholly  by  their  sympathies  with  one  or 
other  of  these  contending  European  powers,  I 
Under  Washington  the  English  party  had,  with  \ 
infinite  difficulty,  been  able  to  prevent  their  ad- 
versaries  from  fairly  enlisting  the  United  States 
as  active  partisans  of  France,  in  spite  of  the  i 
fact  that  most  insulting  treatment  was  received  ! 
from  that  country.  Under  John  Adams  the 
same  so-called  British  faction  had  been  baulked 
in  their  hope  of  precipitating  a war  with  the 
French.  Now  in  Mr.  Jefferson’s  second  admin- 
istration, the  French  party  having  won  the  as- 
cendant, the  new  phase  of  the  same  long  strug- 
gle presented  the  question,  whether  or  not  we 
should  be  drawn  into  a war  with  Great  Britain. 
Grave  as  must  have  been  the  disasters  of  such  a 
war  in  1806,  grave  as  they  were  when  the  war 
actually  came  six  years  later,  yet  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  recall  the  provocations  which  were  in- 
flicted upon  us  without  almost  regretting  that 
prudence  was  not  cast  to  the  winds  and  any 
woes  encountered  in  preference  to  unresioting 
submission  to  such  insolent  outrages.  Our 
gorge  rises  at  the  narration  three  quarters  of  a 
century  after  the  acts  were  done. 

Mr.  Adams  took  his  position  early  and  boldly 
In  February,  1806,  he  introduced  into  the  Sen 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


39 


ate  certain  resolutions  strongly  condemnatory  of 
the  right,  claimed  and  vigorously  exercised  by 
the  British,  of  seizing  neutral  vessels  employed 
in  conducting  with  the  enemies  of  Great  Brit- 
ain any  trade  which  had  been  customarily  pro- 
hibited by  that  enemy  in  time  of  peace.  This 
doctrine  was  designed  to  shut  out  American 
merchants  from  certain  privileges  in  trading 
with  French  colonies,  which  had  been  accorded 
only  since  France  had  become  involved  in  war 
with  Great  Britain.  The  principle  was  utterly 
illegal  and  extremely  injurious.  Mr.  Adams, 
in  his  first  resolution,  stigmatized  it  “ as  an  un- 
provoked aggression  upon  the  property  of  the 
citizens  of  these  United  States,  a violation  of 
their  neutral  rights,  and  an  encroachment  upon 
their  national  independence.”  By  his  second 
resolution,  the  President  was  requested  to  de- 
mand and  insist  upon  the  restoration  of  prop- 
erty seized  under  this  pretext,  and  upon  indem- 
nification for  property  already  confiscated.  By  a 
rare  good  fortune,  Mr.  Adams  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  his  propositions  carried,  only  slightly 
modified  by  the  omission  of  the  words  “ to  in- 
sist.” But  they  were  carried,  of  course,  by  Re- 
publican votes,  and  they  by  no  means  advanced 
their  mover  in  the  favor  of  the  Federalist  party. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  that  party,  of  which 
many  of  the  foremost  supporters  were  engaged 


40 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


in  the  very  commerce  which  Great  Biitaiii 
aimed  to  suppress  and  destroy,  seemed  not  to 
be  so  much  incensed  against  her  as  against 
their  own  government.  Tlie  theoi'y  of  the 
party  was,  substantially,  that  England  had  been 
driven  into  these  measui’es  by  the  friendly  tone 
of  our  government  towards  France,  and  by  her 
own  stringent  and  overruling  necessities.  The 
cure  was  not  to  be  sought  in  resistance,  not 
even  in  indignation  and  remonstrance  addressed 
to  that  power,  but  rather  in  cementing  an  alli- 
ance with  her,  and  even,  if  need  should  be,  in 
taking  active  part  in  her  holy  cause.  The  feel- 
ing seemed  to  be  that  we  merited  the  chastise- 
ment because  we  had  not  allied  ourselves  with 
the  chastiser.  These  singular  notions  of  the 
Federalists,  however,  were  by  no  means  the  no- 
tions of  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  as  we  shall 
soon  see. 

On  April  18,  1806,  the  Non-importation  Act 
received  the  approval  of  the  President.  It  was 
the  first  measure  indicative  of  resentment  or  re- 
taliation which  w'as  taken  by  our  government. 
When  it  was  upon  its  passage  it  encountered 
the  vigorous  resistance  of  the  Federalists,  but 
received  the  support  of  Mr.  Adams.  On  May 
16,  1806,  the  British  government  made  another 
long  stride  in  the  course  of  lawless  oppression 
af  neutrals,  which  phrase,  as  commerce  then 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


41 


was,  signified  little  else  than  Americans.  A 
proclamation  was  issued  declaring  the  whole 
coast  of  the  European  continent,  from  Brest  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  to  be  under  blockade. 
In  fact,  of  course,  the  coast  was  not  blockaded, 
and  the  proclamation  was  a falsehood,  an  un« 
justifiable  effort  to  make  words  do  the  work  of 
war-ships.  The  doctrine  which  it  was  thus  en- 
deavored to  establish  had  never  been  admitted 
into  international  law,  has  ever  since  been  re- 
pudiated by  universal  consent  of  all  nations, 
and  is  intrinsically  preposterous.  The  British, 
however,  designed  to  make  it  effective,  and  set 
to  work  in  earnest  to  confiscate  all  vessels  and 
cargoes  captured  on  their  way  from  any  neutral 
nation  to  any  port  within  the  pi’oscribed  dis- 
trict. On  November  21,  next  following,  Napo- 
leon retaliated  by  the  Berlin  decree,  so  called, 
declaring  the  entire  British  Isles  to  be  under 
blockade,  and  forbidding  any  vessel  which  had 
been  in  any  English  port  after  publication  of 
his  decree  to  enter  any  port  in  the  dominions 
under  his  control.  In  January,  1807,  England 
made  the  next  move  by  an  order,  likewise  in 
conti'avention  of  international  law,  forbiddinsr 
to  neutrals  all  commerce  between  ports  of  the 
enemies  of  Great  Britain.  On  November  ll, 
1807,  the  famous  British  Order  in  Council  was 
issued,  declaring  neutral  vessels  and  cargoes 


42 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


bound  to  any  port  or  colony  of  any  country  i 
with  which  England  was  then  at  war,  and 
which  was  closed  to  English  ships,  to  be  liable  •, 
to  capture  and  confiscation.  A few  days  later  j 
November  25,  1807,  another  Order  established  j 
a rate  of  duties  to  be  paid  in  England  upon  all  ' 
neutral  merchandise  which  should  be  permitted  1 
to  be  carried  in  neutral  bottoms  to  countries  j 

at  war  with  that  power.  December  17,  1807,  1 

Napoleon  retorted  by  the  Milan  decree,  which  | 
declared  denationalized  and  subject  to  capture 
and  condemnation  every  vessel,  to  whatsoever 
nation  belonging,  which  should  have  submitted 
to  search  by  an  English  ship,  or  should  be  on  a 
voyage  to  England,  or  should  have  paid  any  tax 
to  the  English  government.  All  these  regula- 
tions, though  purporting  to  be  aimed  at  neutrals 
generally,  in  fact  bore  almost  exclusively  upon 
the  United  States,  who  alone  were  undertak- 
ing to  conduct  any  neutral  commerce  worthy  of 
mention.  As  Mr.  Adams  afterwards  remarked, 
the  effect  of  these  illegal  proclamations  and  un- 
justifiable novel  doctrines  “placed  the  com- 
merce and  shipping  of  the  United  States,  witli 
regard  to  all  Europe  and  European  colonies 
(Sweden  alone  excepted),  in  nearly  the  same 
state  as  it  would  have  been,  if,  on  that  same 
11th  of  November,  England  and  France  had 
both  declared  war  against  the  United  States. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


43 


The  merchants  of  this  conntiy  might  as  well 
have  burned  their  ships  as  have  submitted  to 
these  decrees. 

All  this  while  the  impressment  of  American 
seamen  by  British  ships  of  war  was  being  vigor- 
ously prosecuted.  This  is  one  of  those  outrages 
so  long  ago  laid  away  among  the  mouldering 
tombs  in  the  historical  grave-yard  that  few  per- 
sons now  appreciate  its  enormity,  or  the  extent 
to  which  it  was  carried.  Those  who  will  be  at 
the  pains  to  ascertain  the  truth  in  the  matter 
will  feel  that  the  bloodiest,  most  costl}^,  and 
most  disastrous  war  would  have  been  better 
than  tame  endurance  of  treatment  so  brutal 
and  unjustifiable  that  it  finds  no  parallel  even 
in  the  long  and  dark  list  of  wrongs  which  Great 
Britain  has  been  wont  to  inflict  upon  all  the 
weaker  or  the  uncivilized  peoples  with  whom 
she  has  been  brought  or  has  gratuitously  forced 
herself  into  unwelcome  contact.  It  was  not  an 
occasional  act  of  high-handed  arrogance  that 
was  done ; there  were  not  only  a few  unfortu- 
nate victims,  of  whom  a large  proportion  might 
be  of  unascertained  nationality.  It  was  an  or- 
ganized system  worked  upon  a very  large  scale. 
Every  American  seaman  felt  it  necessaiy  to 
have  a certificate  of  citizenship,  accompanied 
by  a description  of  his  features  and  of  all  the 
marks  upon  his  person,  as  Mr.  Adams  said, 


ii 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


“like  the  advertisement  for  a runaway  negro 
slave.”  Nor  was  even  this  protection  by  any 
means  sure  to  be  always  efficient.  The  num- 
ber of  undoubted  American  citizens  who  were 
seized  rose  in  a few  years  actually  to  many 
thousands.  They  were  often  taken  without  so 
much  as  a false  pretence  to  right ; but  with  the 
acknowledgment  that  they  were  Americans, 
they  were  seized  upon  the  plea  of  a necessity 
for  their  services  in  the  British  ship.  Some 
American  vessels  were  left  so  denuded  of  sea- 
men that  they  were  lost  at  sea  for  want  of  hands 
to  man  them ; the  destruction  of  lives  as  well  as 
property,  unquestionably  thus  caused,  was  im- 
mense. When  after  the  lapse  of  a long  time 
and  of  infinite  negotiation  the  American  citi- 
zenship of  some  individual  was  clearly  shown, 
still  the  chances  of  his  return  were  small ; some 
false  and  ignoble  subterfuge  was  resorted  to ; 
he  was  not  to  be  found ; the  name  did  not  occur 
on  the  rolls  of  the  navy ; he  had  died,  or  been 
discharged,  or  had  deserted,  or  had  been  shot. 
The  more  illegal  the  act  committed  by  any 
British  officer  the  more  sure  he  was  of  reward, 
till  it  seemed  that  the  impressment  of  American 
citizens  was  an  even  surer  road  to  promotion 
than  valor  in  an  engagement  with  the  enemy 
Such  were  the  substantial  wrongs  inflicted  by 
Groat  Britain  ; nor  were  any  pains  taken  tc 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


45 


3lo;\k  their  character ; on  the  contrary,  they 
were  done  with  more  than  British  insolence 
and  offensiveness,  and  were  accompanied  with 
insults  which  alone  constituted  sufficient  prov- 
ocation to  war.  To  all  this,  for  a long  time, 
nothing  but  empty  and  utterly  futile  protests 
were  opposed  by  this  country.  The  affair  of 
the  Chesapeake,  indeed,  threatened  for  a brief 
moment  to  bring  things  to  a crisis.  That  ves- 
sel, an  American  frigate,  commanded  by  Com- 
modore Barron,  sailed  on  June  22,  1807,  from 
Hampton  Roads.  The  Leopard,  a British  fifty- 
gun  ship,  followed  her,  and  before  she  was  out 
of  sight  of  land,  hailed  her  and  demanded  the 
delivery  of  four  men,  of  whom  three  at  least 
were  surely  native  Americans.  Barron  refused 
the  demand,  though  his  ship  was  wholly  unpre- 
pared for  action.  Thereupon  the  Englishman 
opened  his  broadsides,  killed  three  men  and 
wounded  sixteen,  boarded  the  Chesapeake  and 
took  off  the  four  sailors.  They  were  carried  to 
Halifax  and  tried  by  court-martial  for  deser- 
tion : one  of  them  was  hanged ; one  died  in  con- 
finement, and  five  years  elapsed  before  the  other 
two  were  returned  to  the  Chesapeake  in  Boston 
harbor.  This  wound  was  sufficiently  deep  to 
arouse  a real  spirit  of  resentment  and  revenge, 
and  England  went  sc  far  as  to  dispatch  Mr 
Rose  to  this  country  upon  a pretended  mission 


46 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAJfS. 


of  peace,  though  the  fraudulent  character  of  hia 
errand  was  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  within  a few  hours  after  his  departure  the 
first  of  the  above  named  Orders  in  Council  was 
issued  but  had  not  been  communicated  to  him. 
As  Mr.  Adams  indignantly  said,  “the  same  pen- 
ful of  ink  which  signed  his  instructions  might 
have  been  used  also  to  sign  these  illegal  orders.” 
Admiral  Berkeley,  the  commander  of  the  Leop- 
ard, received  the  punishment  which  he  might 
justly  have  expected  if  precedent  was  to  count 
for  anything  in  the  naval  service  of  Great 
Britain, — he  was  promoted. 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  endeavor  to 
measure  the  comparative  wrongfulness  of  the 
conduct  of  England  and  of  France.  The  be- 
havior of  each  was  utterly  unjustifiable  ; though 
England  by  committing  the  first  extreme  breach 
of  international  law  gave  to  France  the  excuse 
of  retaliation.  There  was,  however,  vast  dif- 
ference in  the  practical  effect  of  the  British  and 
French  decrees.  The  former  wrought  serious 
injury,  falling  little  short  of  total  destruction, 
to  American  shipping  and  commerce ; the  lat- 
ter were  only  in  a much  less  degree  hurtful. 
The  immense  naval  power  of  England,  and  the 
channels  in  which  our  trade  naturally  flowed 
combined  to  make  her  destructive  capacity  as 
towards  us  very  great.  It  was  the  outrages  in 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


47 


flicted  by  lier  wLich  brought  the  merchants  of 
the  United  States  face  to  face  with  ruin  ; they 
Buffered  not  very  greatly  at  the  hands  of  Na- 
poleon. Neither  could  the  villainous  process 
of  impressment  be  conducted  by  Frenchmen. 
France  gave  us  cause  for  war,  but  England 
Eeemed  resolved  to  drive  us  into  it. 

As  British  aggressions  grew  steadilj^  and  rap- 
idly more  intolerable,  Mr.  Adams  found  himself 
straining  farther  and  farther  away  from  those 
Federalist  moorings  at  which,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, he  had  long  swung  very  precai-iously. 
The  constituency  which  he  represented  was  in- 
deed in  a quandary  so  embarrassing  as  hardly  to 
be  capable  of  maintaining  any  consistent  policy. 
The  New  England  of  that  day  was  a trading 
community,  of  which  the  industry  and  capital 
were  almost  exclusively  centred  in  ship-owning 
and  commerce.  The  merchants,  almost  to  a 
man,  had  long  been  the  most  Anglican  of  Fed- 
eralists in  their  political  sympathies.  Now  they 
found  themselves  suffering  utterly  ruinous  treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  those  whom  thej^  had 
loved  overmuch.  They  were  being  ruthlessly 
destroyed  by  their  friends,  to  whom  they  had 
been,  so  to  speak,  almost  disloyally  loyal.  They 
saw  their  business  annihilated,  their  property 
seized,  and  yet  could  not  give  utterance  to  re- 
lentment,  or  counsel  resistance,  without  such  a 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


i8 

humiliating  devouring  of  all  their  own  princi- 
ples and  sentiments  as  they  could  by  no  possi- 
bility bring  themselves  to  endure.  There  was 
but  one  road  open  to  them,  and  that  was  the 
ignoble  one  of  casting  themselves  wholly  into 
the  arms  of  England,  of  rewarding  her  blows 
with  caresses,  of  submitting  to  be  fairly  scourged 
into  a servile  alliance  with  her.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  independent  temper  of  ]\Ir. 
Adams  revolted  at  the  position  wdiicli  his  party 
seemed  not  reluctant  to  assume  at  this  juncture. 
Yet  not  very  much  better  seemed  for  a time 
the  policy  of  the  administration.  Jefferson  was 
far  from  being  a man  for  troubled  seasons, 
which  called  for  high  spirit  and  executive  en- 
ergy. His  flotillas  of  gunboats  and  like  idle 
and  silly  fantasies  only  excited  Mr.  Adams’s 
disgust.  In  fact,  there  was  upon  all  sides  a 
strong  dread  of  a w'ar  with  England,  not  always 
openly  expressed,  but  now  perfectly  visible,  aris- 
ing with  some  from  regard  for  that  country,  in 
others  prompted  by  fear  of  her  powei’.  Alone 
among  public  men  Mr.  Adams,  while  earnestly 
hoping  to  escape  war,  was  not  willing  to  seek 
that  escape  by  unlimited  weakness  and  un- 
bounded submission  to  lawless  injury. 

On  November  17,  1807,  Mr.  Ada-is,  who 
never  in  his  life  allowed  fear  to  become  a mo- 
tive, wrote,  with  obvious  contempt  and  indig 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


49 


nation:  “I  observe  among  tlie  members  great 
embarrassment,  alarm,  anxiety,  and  confusion 
of  mind,  but  no  preparation  for  any  measure 
of  vigor,  and  an  obvious  strong  disposition  to 
yield  all  that  Great  Britain  may  require,  to  pre- 
serve peace,  under  a thin  external  show  of  dig- 
nity and  bravery.”  This  tame  and  vacillating 
spirit  roused  his  ire,  and  as  it  was  chiefly  mani- 
fested by  his  own  party  it  alienated  him  from 
them  farther  than  ever.  Yet  his  wrath  was  so 
far  held  in  reasonable  check  by  his  discretion 
tliat  he  would  still  have  liked  to  avoid  the  peril- 
ous conclusion  of  arms,  and  though  his  impulse 
was  to  fight,  yet  he  could  not  but  recognize  that 
the  sensible  course  was  to  be  content,  for  the 
time  at  least,  with  a manifestation  of  resent- 
ment, and  the  most  vigorous  acts  short  of  war 
which  the  government  could  be  induced  to  un- 
dertake. On  this  sentiment  were  based  his  in- 
troduction of  the  aforementioned  resolutions,  his 
willingness  to  support  the  administration,  and 
his  vote  for  the  Non-importation  Act  in  spite  of 
a dislike  for  it  as  a very  imperfectly  satisfactory 
measure.  But  it  was  not  alone  his  naturally  in- 
dependent temper  which  led  him  thus  to  feel  so 
differently  from  other  members  cf  his  party.  In 
Europe  he  had  had  opportunities  of  forming  a 
judgment  more  accurate  than  was  possible  for 
most  Americans  concerning  the  sentiments  and 


4 


50 


JOHN  QUJXCY  ADAMS. 


policy  of  England  towards  this  country.  Not 
only  had  he  bepu  present  at  the  negotiations 
resulting  in  th'  treaty  of  peace,  but  he  had  also 
afterwards  be^  ; for  several  months  engaged  in 
the  person  ’ discussion  of  commercial  questions 
with  the  British  minister  of  foreign  affairs. 
From  all  that  he  had  thus  seen  and  heard  ho 
had  reach ''d  the  conviction,  unquestionably  cor- 
rect, that  the  British  were  not  only  resolved  to 
adopt  a selfish  course  towards  the  United  States, 
which  might  have  been  expected,  but  that  they 
were  consistently  pursuing  the  further  distinct 
design  of  crippling  and  destroying  American 
commerce,  to  the  utmost  degree  which  their  own 
extensive  trade  and  great  naval  authorit}'^  and 
power  rendei’ed  possible.  S long  as  he  held 
this  firm  belief,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should 
be  at  issue  with  the  Federalists  in  all  matters 
concerning  our  policy  towards  Great  Britain. 
The  ill-will  naturally  engendered  in  him  by 
this  conviction  was  increased  to  profound  in- 
dignation when  illiberal  measures  were  suc- 
ceeded by  insults,  by  substantial  wrongs  in  di- 
rect contravention  of  law,  and  by  acts  properly 
to  be  described  as  of  real  hostility.  For  Mr. 
Adams  w’as  by  nature  not  only  independent,  but 
resentful  and  combative.  When,  soon  after  the 
attack  of  the  Leopard  upon  the  Chesapeake,  hg 
heard  the  transaction  “ openly  justified  at  noon 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


51 


day,”  by  a prominent  Federalist,^  “in  a public 
insurance  office  upon  the  excbmige  at  Boston,” 
his  temper  rose.  “ This,”  be  aTerward  wrote, 
“this  was  the  cause  . . . whicji  .alienated  me 
from  that  day  and  forever  from  t^  councils  of 
the  Federal  party.”  When  the  news  of  that 
outrage  reached  Boston,  IMr.  Adams  was  there, 
and  desired  that  the  leading  Fedtyiilists  in 
the  city  should  at  once  “ take  the  lead  in  pro- 
moting a strong  and  clear  expression  c.5  the 
sentiments  of  the  people,  and  in  an  open  and 
free-hearted  manner,  setting  aside  all  party  feel- 
ings, declare  their  determination  at  that  crisis 
to  support  the  government  of  their  country.” 
But  unfortunately  these  gentlemen  were  by  no 
means  prepared  f.^  any  such  action,  and  fool- 
ishly left  it  for  the  friends  of  the  administration 
to  give  the  first  utterance  to  a feeling  which  it 
is  hard  to  excuse  any  American  for  not  enter- 
taining beneath  such  provocation.  It  was  the 
Jeffersonians,  accordingly,  who  convened  “ an 
informal  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Boston  and 
the  neighborincr  towns,”  at  which  ]\Ir.  Adams 
was  present,  and  by  which  he  was  put  upon 
a committee  to  draw  and  report  resolutions. 
These  resolutions  pledged  a cheerful  coopera- 
tion “in  any  measures,  however  serious,”  which 
‘he  government  might  deem  necessary,  and  a 


1 Mr.  John  LowelL 


JOHN  U^I^’CY  ADAMS. 


support  of  the  same  with  “lives  and  fortunes.” 
The  Federalists,  learning  too  late  that  their 
backwardness  at  this  crisis  was  a blunder, 
caused  a town  meeting  to  be  called  at  Fanned 
Hall  a few  days  later.  This  also  Mr.  Adams 
attended,  and  again  was  pnt  on  the  committee 
to  draft  resolntious,  wdiich  were  only  a little  less 
strong  than  those  of  the  earlier  assemblage. 
But  though  many  of  the  Federalists  thus  tar- 
dily and  reluctantly  fell  in  with  the  popular 
sentiment,  they  were  for  the  most  part  heartily 
incensed  against  Mr.  Adams.  They  threatened 
him  that  he  should  “ have  his  head  taken  off 
for  apostasy,”  and  gave  him  to  understand  that 
he  “ should  no  longer  be  considered  as  having 
any  communion  with  the  party.”  If  he  had 
not  already  quite  left  them,  they  now  turned 
him  out  from  their  community.  But  such 
abusive  treatment  was  ill  adapted  to  influence 
a man  of  his  temper.  Martyrdom,  which  in 
time  he  came  to  relish,  had  not  now  any  ter- 
rors for  him  ; and  he  would  have  lost  as  many 
heads  as  ever  grew  on  Hydra,  ere  he  would 
have  yielded  on  a point  of  principle. 

His  spirit  was  soon  to  be  demonstrated. 
Congress  was  convened  in  extra  session  on 
October  26,  1807.  The  administration  brought 
forward  the  bill  establishing  an  embargo.  The 
measure  may  now  be  pronounced  a blunder, 


JOIIX  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


53 


tnd  its  proposal  created  a howl  of  rage  and 
anguish  from  the  commercial  states,  who  saw 
in  it  only  their  utter  ruin.  Already  a strong 
sectional  feeling  had  been  developed  between 
the  planters  of  the  Soi;th  and  the  merchants  of 
the  North  and  East,  and  the  latter  now  united 
in  the  cry  that  their  quarter  -was  to  be  ruined 
by  the  ignorant  policy  of  this  Virginian  Pres- 
ident. Terrible  then  was  their  wrath,  -when  they 
actually  saw  a Massachusetts  Senator  boldly  give 
his  vote  for  what  they  deemed  the  most  odions 
and  wicked  bill  which  had  ever  been  present- 
ed in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Nay,  more,  they 
learned  with  horror  that  Mr.  Adams  had  even 
been  a member  of  the  committee  which  reported 
the  bill,  and  that  he  had  joined  in  the  report. 
Henceforth  the  Federal  party  was  to  be  like  a 
liive  of  enraged  hornets  about  the  devoted  ren- 
egade. No  abuse  which  they  could  heap  upon 
him  seemed  nearly  adequate  to  the  occasion. 
They  despised  him ; they  loathed  him  ; they  said 
and  believed  that  he  was  false,  selfish,  designing, 
a traitor,  an  apostate,  that  he  had  run  away 
from  a failing  cause,  that  he  had  sold  himself. 
The  language  of  contumely  was  exhausted  in 
vain  .efforts  to  describe  his  baseness.  Not  even 
'-et  has  the  echo  of  the  hard  names  which  he 
was  called  quite  died  away  in  the  land ; and 
here  are  still  families  in  New  England  with 


•y 


54 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


^vhom  his  dishonest  tergiversation  • remains  a 
traditional  belief. 

Never  was  any  man  more  unjustly  aspersed. 
It  is  impossible  to  view  all  the  evidence  dis- 
passionately without  not  only  acquitting  Mr. 
Adams  but  greatly  admiring  his  courage,  hia 
constancy,  his  independence.  Whether  the  em- 
bargo was  a wise  and  efficient  or  a futile  and 
useless  measure,  has  little  to  do  with  the  ques- 
tion of  his  conduct.  The  emergency  called  for 
strong  action.  The  Federalists  suggested  only  a 
temporizing  submission,  or  that  we  should  avert 
the  terrible  wrath  of  England  by  crawling  be- 
neath her  lashes  into  political  and  commercial 
servitude.  Mr.  Jefferson  thought  the  embargo 
would  do,  that  it  would  aid  him  in  his  negotia- 
tions with  England  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to 
bring  her  to  terms ; he  had  before  thought  the 
same  of  the  Non-importation  Act.  Mr.  Adams 
felt,  properly  enough,  concerning  both  these 
schemes,  that  they  were  insufficient  and  in 
many  respects  objectionable ; but  that  to  give 
the  administration  hearty  support  in  the  most 
vigorous  measures  which  it  was  willing  to  un- 
dertake,  was  better  than  to  aid  an  opposition 
utterly  nerveless  and  servile  and  altogether 
devoid  of  so  much  as  the  desire  for  efficient 
action.  It  was  no  time  to  stay  with  tlie  party 
of  weakness  ; it  was  right  to  strengthen  rather 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


55 


than  to  hamper  a man  so  pacific  and  spiritless  as 
Mr.  Jefferson ; to  show  a readiness  to  forward 
even  his  imperfect  expedients ; to  display  a 
united  and  indignant,  if  not  quite  a hostile 
front  to  Great  Britain,  rather  than  to  exhibit  a 
tame  and  friendly  feeling  towards  her.  It  was 
for  these  reasons,  which  had  already  controlled 
his  action  concerning  the  non-importation  bill, 
that  Mr.  Adams  joined  in  reporting  the  em- 
bargo bill  and  voted  for  it.  He  never  pre- 
tended that  he  himself  had  any  especial  fancy 
for  either  of  these  measures,  or  that  he  regarded 
them  as  the  best  that  could  be  devised  under 
the  circumstances.  On  the  contrary,  he  hoped 
that  the  passage  of  the  embargo  would  allow  of 
the  repeal  of  its  predecessor.  That  he  expected 
some  good  from  it,  and  that  it  did  some  little 
good  cannot  be  denied.  It  did  save  a great  deal 
of  American  property,  both  shipping  and  mer- 
chandise, from  seizure  and  condemnation ; and 
if  it  cut  off  the  income  it  at  least  saved  much 
of  the  principal  of  our  merchants.  If  only  the 
bill  had  been  promptly  repealed  so  soon  as  this 
protective  purpose  had  been  achieved,  without 
awaiting  further  and  altogether  impossible  ben- 
efits to  accrue  from  it  as  an  offensive  measure, 
might  perhap's  have  left  a better  memory  be- 
hind it.  Unfortunately  no  one  can  deny  that  it 
tras  continued  much  too  long.  Mr.  Adams  saw 


56 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


this  error  find  dreaded  the  consequences.  After 
he  had  left  Congress  and  had  gone  back  to  pri- 
vate life,  he  exerted  all  the  influence  'which  he 
had  with  the  Republican  members  of  Congress 
to  secure  its  repeal  and  the  substitution  of  the 
Non-intercourse  Act,  an  exchange  which  was  in 
time  accomplished,  though  much  too  tardily. 
Nay,  much  more  than  this,  Mr.  Adams  stands 
forth  almost  alone  as  the  advocate  of  threaten- 
ing if  not  of  actually  belligerent  measures.  He 
expressed  his  belief  that  “ our  internal  re- 
Bources  [wei’e]  competent  to  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  a naval  force,  public  and 
private,  if  not  fully  adequate  to  the  protection 
and  defence  of  our  commerce,  at  least  sufficient 
to  induce  a retreat  from  hostilities,  and  to  deter 
from  a renewal  of  them  by  either  of  the  war- 
ring parties  ; ” and  he  insisted  that  “ a system  to 
that  effect  might  be  formed,  ultimately  far  more 
economical,  and  certainly  more  energetic,”  than 
the  embargo.  But  his  “ resolution  met  no  en- 
couragement.” He  found  that  it  was  the  em- 
bargo or  nothing,  and  he  thought  the  embargo 
was  a little  better  than  nothing,  as  probably  it 
was. 

All  the  arguments  which  Mr.  Adams  ad- 
vanced were  far  from  satisfying  his  constituents 
in  those  days  of  wild  political  excitement,  and 
they  quickly  found  the  means  of  intimating  their 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


57 


nnappeasable  displeasure  in  a way  certainly  not 
open  to  misapprehension.  Mr.  Adams’s  term 
of  service  in  the  Senate  was  to  expire  on  March 
3, 1809.  On  June  2 and  3,  1808,  anticipating  by 
many  months  the  customary  time  for  filling  the 
commg  vacancy,  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
proceeded  to  choose  James  Lloyd,  junior,  his 
successor.  The  votes  were,  in  the  Senate  21  for 
IMr.  Lloyd,  17  for  Mr.  Adams;  in  the  House 
248  for  IMr.  Lloyd,  and  213  for  Mr.  Adams.  A 
more  insulting  method  of  administering  a re- 
buke could  not  have  been  devised.  At  the  same 
time,  in  further  expression  of  disapprobation' 
resolutions  strongly  condemnatory  of  the  em- 
bargo were  passed.  Mr.  Adams  was  not  the  man 
to  stay  where  he  was  not  wanted,  and  on  June  8 
he  sent  in  his  letter  of  resignation.  On  the  next 
day  Mr.  Lloyd  was  chosen  to  serve  for  the  bal- 
ance of  his  term. 

^Thus  John  Quincy  Adams  changed  sides. 
The  son  of  John  Adams  lost  the  senatorship 
for  persistently  supporting  the  administration 
of  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  was  indeed  a singular 
spectacle ! In  1803  he  had  been  sent  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  by  Federalists  as 
a Federalist;  in  1808  he  had  abjured  them  and 
they  had  repudiated  him;  in  1809,  as  we  are 
soon  to  see,  he  received  a foreign  appointment 
from  the  Republican  President  Madison,  and 


58 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


was  confirmed  by  a Republican  Senate.  Many 
of  Mr.  Adams’s  acts,  many  of  his  traits,  have  | 

been  harshly  criticised,  but  for  no  act  that  he  1 

ever  did  or  ever  was  charged  with  doing  has  ■ 

he  been  so  harshly  assailed  as  for  tins  journey  , 

from  one  camp  to  the  other.  The  gentlemen  i 
of  wealth,  position,  and  influence  in  Eastern  j 
Massachusetts,  almost  to  a man,  turned  against 
him  with  virulence;  many  of  their  descend- 
ants still  cherish  the  ancestral  prejudice ; and 
it  may  yet  be  a long  while  before  the  last  mut- 
terings  of  this  deep-rooted  antipathy  die  away. 
But  that  they  will  die  away  in  time  cannot  be 
doubted.  Praise  will  succeed  to  blame.  Truth 
must  prevail  in  a case  where  such  abundant 
evidence  is  accessible  ; and  the  truth  is  that  Mr. 
Adams’s  conduct  was  not  ignoble,  mean,  and 
traitorous,  but  honorable,  courageous,  and  dis- 
interested. Those  who  singled  him  out  for 
assault,  though  deaf  to  his  arguments,  might 
even  then  have  reflected  that  within  a few 
years  a large  proportion  of  the  Avhole  nation 
had  changed  in  their  opinions  as  he  had  now  at 
last  changed  in  his,  so  that  the  party  which 
under  Washington  hardly  had  an  existence  and 
under  John  Adams  was  not,  until  the  last 
moment,  seriously  feared,  now  showed  an  enoi'- 
mous  majority  throughout  the  whole  country 
Even  in  Massachusetts,  the  intrenched  cam^ 


JOHN  QVrXCY  ADAMS. 


59 


of  the  Federalists,  one  half  of  the  population 
were  now  Republicans.  But  that  change  of 
political  sentiment  which  in  the  individual  voter 
is  often  admired  as  evidence  of  independent 
thought,  is  stigmatized  in  those  more  prominent 
in  politics  as  tergiversation  and  apostasy. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  there  are  sound 
reasons  for  holding  party  leaders  to  a more 
rigid  allegiance  to  party  policy  than  is  expected 
of  the  rank  and  file ; yet  certainly  at  those 
periods  when  substantially  new  measures  and 
new  doctrines  come  to  the  front,  the  old  pai’ty 
names  lose  whatever  sacredness  may  at  other 
times  be  in  them,  and  the  political  fellowships 
of  the  past  may  properly  be  reformed.  Novel 
problems  cannot  always  find  old  comrades  still 
united  in  opinions.  Precisely  such  was  the  case 
with  John  Quincy  Adams  and  the  Federalists. 
The  earlier  Federalist  creed  related  to  one  set 
of  issues,  the  later  Federalist  creed  to  quite 
another  set ; the  earlier  creed  was  sound  and 
deserving  of  support ; the  later  creed  was  not 
so.  It  is  easy  to  see,  as  one  looks  backward 
upon  history,  that  every  great  and  successful 
party  has  its  mission,  that  it  wins  its  success 
through  the  substantial  ligliteousness  of  that 
mission,  and  ihat  it  owes  its  downfall  to  as- 
suming an  erroneous  attitude  towards  some 
lubsequent  matter  wnich  becomes  in  turn  of 


50 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


predominating  importance.  Sometimes,  though 
rarelj’,  a party  remains  on  the  right  side  through 
two  or  even  more  successive  ^ues  of  profound 
consequence  to  the  nation.v/rhe  Federalist  mis- 
sion was  to  establish  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  as  a vigorous,  efficient,  and  prac- 
tical system  of  government,  to  prove  its  sound- 
ness, safety,  and  efScacy,  and  to  defend  it  from 
the  undermining  assaults  of  those  who  dis- 
trusted it  and  would  have  reduced  it  to  imbe- 
cility. Supplementary  and  cognate  to  this  was 
the  further  task  of  giving  the  young  nation  and 
the  new  system  a chance  to  get  fairly  started  in 
life  before  being  subjected  to  the  strain  of  war 
and  European  entanglements.  To  this  end  it 
was  necessary  to  hold  in  check  the  Jeffersonian 
or  French  party,  who  sought  to  embroil  us  in 
a foreign  quarrel.  These  two  functions  of  the 
Federalist  party  were  quite  in  accord  ; they  in 
volved  tlie  organizing  and  domestic  instinct 
against  the  disorganizing  and  meddlesome  ; the 
Btrengthening  against  the  enfeebling  process ; 
practical  thinking  against  fanciful  theories.  For- 
tunately the  able  men  bad  been  generally  of  the 
sound  persuasion,  and  by  powerful  exertions  had 
carried  the  day  and  accomp»lished  their  allotted 
tasks  so  thoroughly  that  all  subsequent  genera- 
tions of  Americans  have  been  reaping  the  ben- 
efit of  their  labors.  But  by  the  time  that  Joho 


JOHN  QUIXCr  AD.UfS. 


G1 


Adams  had  concluded  liis  administration  the 
great  Federalist  work  had  been  sufficiently  done. 
Those  who  still  believe  that  there  is  an  over- 
rulinsr  Providence  in  the  affairs  of  men  and  na- 
tions,  may  well  point  to  the  history  of  this 
period  in  support  of  their  theory.  Republican- 
ism was  not  able  to  triumph  till  Federalism  had 
fulfilled  all  its  proper  duty  and  was  on  the  point 
of  going  wrong. 

During  this  earlier  period  John  Quincy  Adams 
had  been  a Federalist  by  conviction  as  well  as 
by  education.  Nor  was  there  any  obvious  reason 
for  him  to  change  his  political  faith  with  the 
change  of  part}'-  success,  brought  about  as  that 
was  before  its  necessity  was  apparent  but  by 
thekure  and  inscrutable  wisdom  so  marvellously 
inclosed  in  the  great  popular  instinct.  It  was 
not  patent,  when  Mr.  Jefferson  succeeded  Mr. 
Adams,  that  Federalism  was  soon  to  become 
an  unsound  political  creed  — unsound,  not  be- 
cause it  had  been  defeated,  but  because  it  had 
done  its  work,  and  in  the  new  emergency  was 
destined  to  blunder.  During  Mr.  Jefferson’s 
first  administration  no  questions  of  novel  im- 
port arose.  But  they  were  not  far  distant,  and 
soon  were  presented  by  the  British  aggres- 
Bions.  A grave  crisis  was  created  by  this  sys- 
tem of  organized  destruction  of  property  and 
wholesale  stealing  of  citizens,  now  suddenly 


62 


JOHN  QUlNCr  aDAMS. 


practised  with  such  terrible  energy.  What  was 
to  be  done?  What  had  the  two  great  parties 
to  advise  concerning  the  policy  of  the  country 
in  this  hour  of  peril?  Unfortunately  for  the 
Federalists  old  predilections  were  allowed  now 
to  govern  their  present  action.  Excusably  An- 
glican in  the  by-gone  days  of  Genet’s  mission, 
they  now  remained  still  Anglican,  when  to  be 
Anglican  was  to  be  emphatically  un-American. 
As  one  reads  the  history  of  1807  and  1808  it  is 
impossible  not  to  feel  almost  a sense  of  personal 
gratitude  to  John  Quincy  Adams  that  he  dared 
to  step  out  from  his  meek-spirited  party  and 
do  all  that  cii’cumstances  rendered  possible  to 
promote  resistance  to  insults  and  wrongs  intol- 
erable. In  truth,  he  was  always  a man  of  high 
temper,  and  eminently  a patriotic  citizen  of  the 
United  States.  Unlike  too  many  even  of  the 
best  among  his  countrymen  in  those  early  years 
of  the  Republic,  he  had  no  foreign  sympathies 
whatsoever  ; he  was  neither  French  nor  English, 
but  wholly,  exclusively,  and  warmly  American. 
He  had  no  second  love;  the  United  States 
filled  his  public  heart  and  monojDolized  his  po- 
litical affections.  When  he  was  abroad  ho  es- 
tablished neither  affiliations  nor  antipathies, 
and  when  he  was  at  home  he  drifted  with  no 
party  whose  course  was  governed  by  foreign 
magnets.  It  needs  only  zhat  this  characteristi* 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


63 


should  be  fully  understood  in  order  that  his 
conduct  in  1808  should  be  not  alone  vindicated 
but  greatly  admired. 

At  that  time  it  was  said,  and  it  lias  been  since 
repeated,  that  he  was  allured  by  the  loaves  and 
fishes  which  the  Republicans  could  distribute, 
while  the  Federalists  could  cast  to  him  only 
meagre  and  uncertain  crusts.  Circumstances 
gave  to  the  accusation  such  a superficial  plau- 
sibility that  it  was  believed  by  many  honest 
men  under  the  influence  of  political  preju- 
dice. But  such  a charge,  alleged  concerning 
a single  act  in  a long  public  career,  is  to  be 
scanned  with  suspicion.  Dispi’oof  by  demon- 
stration is  impossible  ; but  it  is  fair  to  seek  for 
the  character  of  the  act  in  a study  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  actor,  as  illustrated  by  the  rest  of 
his  career.  Thus  seeking  we  shall  see  that,  if 
any  traits  can  be  surely  predicated  of  any  man, 
independence,  courage,  and  honesty  may  be 
predicated  of  Mr.  Adams.  His  long  public  life 
had  many  periods  of  trial,  yet  this  is  the  sole 
occasion  when  it  is  so  much  as  possible  seri- 
ously to  question  the  purity  of  his  motives  — 
f)r  the  story  of  his  intrigue  with  hlr.  Clay  to 
eecure  the  Presidency  was  never  really  be- 
lieved by  any  one  except  General  Jackson,  and 
the  beliefs  of  General  Jackson  are  of  little  con- 
i^quence.  From  the  earliest  to  the  latest  day 


S4 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


of  his  public  life,  he  was  never  a party  man, 
He  is  entitled  to  the  justification  to  he  derived 
from  this  life-long  habit,  when,  in  1807-8,  he 
voted  against  the  wishes  of  those  who  had 
hoped  to  hold  him  in  the  bonds  of  partisan 
alliance.  In  point  of  fact,  so  far  from  these 
acts  being  a yielding  to  selfish  and  calculating 
temptation,  they  called  for  great  courage  and 
strength  ^ mind ; instead  of  being  tergiversa- 
tion, they  were  a triumph  in  a severe  ordeal.  Mr. 
Adams  was  not  so  dull  as  to  underrate,  nor  so 
void  of  good  feeling  as  to  be  careless  of,  the  storm 
of  obloquy  which  he  had  to  encounter,  not  only 
in  such  shape  as  is  customary  in  like  instances 
of  a change  of  sides  in  politics,  but,  in  his  pres- 
ent case,  of  a peculiarly  painful  kind.  He  was 
to  seem  unfaithful,  not  only  to  a party,  but  to 
the  bitter  feud  of  a father  whom  he  dearly  loved 
and  greatly  respected ; he  was  to  be  reviled  by 
the  neighbors  and  friends  who  constituted  his 
natural  social  circle  in  Bosj^on  ; he  was  to  alien- 
ate himself  from  the  rich,  the  cultivated,  the 
influential  gentlemen  of  his  neighborhood,  his 
comrades,  who  would  almost  universally  con- 
demn his  conduct.  He  was  to  lose  his  position 
as  Senator,  and  probably  to  destroy  all  hopes  of 
“^urther  political  success  so  far  as  it  depended 
upon  the  good-will  of  the  people  of  his  own 
State.  In  this  he  was  at  least  giving  up  a cer 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


65 


iaiuty  in  excliange  for  what  even  his  enemies 
must  admit  to  have  been  only  an  expectation. 

But  in  fact  it  is  now  evident  that  there  was 
not  upon  his  part  even  an  expectation.  At  the 
first  signs  of  the  views  which  he  was  likely  to 
hold,  that  contemptible  but  influential  Republi- 
can, Giles,  of  Virginia,  also  one  or  two  others 
of  the  same  party,  sought  to  approach  him  with 
insinuatina:  suo'orestions.  But  Mr.  Adams  met 
these  advances  in  a manner  frigid  and  repellent 
even  beyond  his  wont,  and  far  from  seeking  to 
conciliate  these  emissaries,  and  to  make  a bar- 
gain, or  even  establish  a tacit  understanding  for 
his  own  beneflt,  he  held  them  far  aloof,  and  sim- 
ply stated  that  he  wished  and  expected  nothing 
from  the  Administration.  His  mind  was  made 
up,  his  opinion  was  formed ; no  bribe  was  needed 
to  secure  his  vote.  Not  thus  do  men  sell  them- 
selves in  politics.  The  Republicans  were  fairly 
notifled  that  he  was  going  to  do  just  as  he 
chose ; and  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  arch-enemy  of 
all  Adamses,  had  no  occasion  to  forego  his  feud 
to  win  this  recruit  from  that  family. 

Mr.  Adams’s  Diary  shows  unmistakably  that 
he  was  acting  rigidly  upon  principle,  that  he 
believed  himself  to  be  injuring  or  even  destro}'- 
ing  his  political  prospects,  and  that  in  so  do- 
ing he  taxed  his  moral  courage  severely.  The 
tvhole  tone  of  the  Diary,  apart  from  those  few 

5 


66 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


distinct  statements  which  hostile  critics  might 
view  with  distrust,  is  despondent,  often  hitter, 
but  defiant  and  stubborn.  If  in  later  life  he 
ever  anticipated  the  possible  publication  of  these 
private  pages,  yet  he  could  hardly  have  done 
60  at  this  early  day.  Among  certain  general 
reflections  at  the  close  of  the  year  1808,  he 
writes : “ On  most  of  the  great  national  ques- 
tions now  under  discussion,  my  sense  of  duty 
leads  me  to  support  the  Administration,  and  I 
find  myself,  of  course,  in  opposition  to  the  Fed- 
eralists in  general.  But  I have  no  communica- 
tion with  the  President,  other  than  that  in  the 
regular  order  of  business  in  the  Senate.  In  this 
state  of  things  my  situation  calls  in  a peculiar 
manner  for  prudence ; my  political  prospects 
are  declining,  and,  as  my  term  of  service  draws 
near  its  close,  I am  constantly  approaching  to 
the  certainty  of  being  restored  to  the  situation 
of  a private  citizen.  For  this  event,  however, 
I hope  to  have  my  mind  suflicieirtly  prepared.” 

In  July,  1808,  the  Republicairs  of  the  Con- 
gressional District  wished  to  send  him  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  but  to  the  gentle- 
man who  waited  upon  him  with  this  proposal 
he  returned  a decided  negative.  Other  consid- 
erations apart,  he  would  not  interfere  with  the 
reelection  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Quincy. 

Certain  remarks,  written  when  his  senatorial 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


67 


tei'in  was  far  advanced,  when  he  had  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  Federalists  Avithout  obtaining 
that  of  the  Republicans,  may  be  of  interest  at 
this  point.  He  wrote,  October  30,  1807:  “I 
employed  the  whole  evening  in  looking  over 
the  Journal  of  the  Senate,  since  I have  been 
one  of  its  members.  Of  the  very  little  business 
which  I have  commenced  during  the  four  ses- 
sions, at  least  three  fourths  has  failed,  with  cir- 
cumstances of  peculiar  mortification.  The  very 
few  instances  in  which  I have  succeeded,  have 
been  always  after  an  opposition  of  great  obsti- 
nacy, often  ludicrously  contrasting  with  the 
insignificance  of  the  object  in  pursuit.  More 
than  one  instance  has  occurred  where  the  same 
thing  which  I have  assiduously  labored  in  vain 
to  effect  has  been  afterwards  accomplished  by 
others,  without  the  least  resistance  ; more  than 
once,  where  the  pleasure  of  disappointing  me 
has  seemed  to  be  the  prominent  principle  of 
decision.  Of  the  preparatory  business,  matured 
in  committees,  I haA'e  had  a share,  gradually  in- 
creasing through  the  four  sessions,  but  always 
as  a subordinate  member.  The  merely  labori- 
ous duties  have  been  readily  assigned  to  me,  and 
as  readily  undertaken  and  discharged.  My  suc- 
cess has  been  more  frequent  in  opposition  than 
in  carrying  any  proposition  of  my  own,  and  I 
hope  I have  been  instrumental  in  arresting  many 


B8 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


unadvised  purposes  and  projects.  Though  as 
to  the  general  policy  of  the  country  I have 
been  uniformly  in  a small,  and  constantly  de- 
creasing minority;  my  opinions  and  votes  have 
been  much  oftener  in  unison  with  the  Adminis- 
tration than  with  their  ojjponents  ; I have  met 
with  at  least  as  much  ojiposition  from  my  party 
friends  as  from  their  adversaries,  — I believe 
more.  I know  not  that  I have  made  any  per- 
sonal enemies  now  in  Senate,  nor  can  I flat- 
ter myself  with  having  acquired  any  personal 
friends.  There  have  been  hitherto  two,  Mr. 
Tracey  and  Mr.  Plumer,  upon  whom  I could 
rely,  but  it  has  pleased  Providence  to  remove 
one  by  death,  and  the  changes  of  political  party 
have  removed  the  other.”  This  is  a striking 
paragraph,  certainly  not  wiatten  by  a man  in  a 
very  cheerful  or  sanguine  frame  of  mind,  not 
by  one  who  congratulates  himself  on  having 
skilfully  taken  the  initial  steps  in  a brilliant 
political  career;  but,  it  is  fair  to  say,  by  one 
who  has  at  least  tried  to  do  his  duty,  and  who 
has  not  knowingly  permitted  himself  to  be 
warped  either  by  passion,  prejudice,  party  alli- 
ances, or  selfish  considerations. 

As  early  as  November,  1805,  Mr.  Adams, 
being  still  what  may  be  described  as  an  in- 
dependent Federalist,  was  apjoroached  by  Dr 
Rush  with  tentative  suggestions  concerning  u 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


69 


foreign  mission.  Mr.  Madison,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  and  even  President  Jefferson,  were 
apparently  not  disinclined  to  give  him  such  em- 
ploj'ment,  provided  he  would  be  willing  to  ac- 
cept it  at  their  hands.  Mr.  Adams  simply  re- 
plied, that  he  would  not  refuse  a nomination 
merely  because  it  came  from  Mr.  Jefferson, 
thousrh  there  was  no  office  in  the  President’s 

O 

gift  for  which  he  had  any  wish.  Perhaps  be- 
cause of  the  unconciliatory  coolness  of  this  re- 
sponse, or  perhaps  for  some  better  reason,  the 
nomination  did  not  follow  at  that  time.  No 
sooner,  however,  had  Mr.  Madison  fairly  taken 
the  oath  of  office  as  President  than  he  be- 
thought him  of  Mr.  Adams,  now  no  longer  a 
Federalist,  but,  concerning  the  present  issues, 
of  the  Republican  persuasion.  On  March  6, 
1809,  Mr.  Adams  was  notified  by  the  President 
personally  of  the  intention  to  nominate  him  as 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  Russia.  It  was  a 
jiew  mission,  the  first  minister  ever  nominated 
to  Russia  having  been  only  a short  time  before 
rejected  by  the  Senate.  But  the  Emperor  had 
often  expressed  his  wish  to  exchange  ministers, 
and  Mr.  Madison  was  anxious  to  comply  with 
the  courteous  request.  Mr.  Adams’s  name  was 
Jiccordingly  at  once  sent  to  the  Senate.  But 
on  the  following  day,  Marcn  7,  that  body  re- 
lolved  that  “it  is  inexpedient  at  this  time  to 


ro  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

appoint  a minister  from  tlie  United  Slates  to 
the  Court  of  Russia.”  The  Tote  was  seven- 
teen to  fifteen,  and  among  the  seventeen  was 
Mr.  Adams’s  old  colleague,  Timothy  Picker- 
ing, who  probably  never  in  his  life  cast  a vote 
which  gave  him  so  much  pleasure.  Mr.  Mad- 
ison, however,  did  not  readily  desist  from  his 
purpose,  and  a few  months  later,  June  26,  he 
sent  a message  to  the  Senate,  stating  that  the 
considerations  previously  leading  him  to  nom- 
inate a minister  to  Russia  had  since  been 
strengthened,  and  again  naming  Mr.  Adams 
for  the  post.  This  time  the  nomination  was 
confirmed  with  readiness,  by  a vote  of  nineteen 
to  seven,  Mr.  Pickering,  of  course,  being  one 
of  the  still  hostile  minority. 

At  noon  on  August  5,  1809,  records  Mr. 
Adams,  “ I left  my  house  at  the  corner  of  Boyl- 
ston  and  Nassau  streets,  in  Boston,”  again  to 
make  the  tedious  and  uncomfortable  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic.  A miserable  and  a dan- 
gerous time  he  had  of  it  ere,  on  October  23,  he 
reached  St.  Petersburg.  Concerning  the  four 
years  and  a half  which  he  is  now  to  spend  in 
Russia  very  little  need  be  said.  His  active  du- 
ties were  of  the  simplest  character,  amounting 
to  little  more  than  rendering  occasional  assist- 
ance to  American  shipmasters  suffering  beneath 
■he  severities  so  often  illegally  inflicted  by  the 


jonx  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


71 


jontesting  powers  of  Europe.  But  apart  from 
the  slender  practical  service  to  be  done,  the 
period  must  have  been  interesting  and  agree- 
able for  him  personally,  for  he  was  received  and 
treated  throughout  bis  stay  by  the  Emperor 
and  his  courtiers  with  distinguished  kindness. 
The  Emperor,  who  often  met  him  walking, 
used  to  stop  and  chat  with  him,  while  Count 
Romanzoff,  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  was 
cordial  beyond  the  ordinary  civility  of  diplo- 
macy. The  Diary  records  a series  of  court  pre- 
sentations, balls,  fetes,  dinners,  diplomatic  and 
other,  launches,  displays  of  fireworks,  birthday 
festivities,  parades,  baptisms,  plays,  state  fu- 
nerals, illuminations,  and  Te  Deums  for  victo- 
ries ; in  short,  every  species  of  social  gayety  and 
public  pageant.  At  all  these  Mr.  Adams  was 
always  a bidden  and  apparently  a welcome 
guest.  It  must  be  admitted,  even  by  his  de- 
tractors, that  he  was  an  admirable  representa- 
tive of  the  United  States  abroad.  Having  al- 
ready seen  much  of  the  distinguished  society  of 
European  courts,  but  retaining  a republican 
idmplicity,  which  was  wholly  genuine  and  a 
natural  part  of  his  character  and  therefore 
was  never  affected  or  offensive  in  its  manifesta- 
tions, he  really  represented  the  best  element  in 
the  politics  and  society  of  the  United  States. 
Winning  respect  for  himself  he  won  it  also  for 


T2 


JOHN  QULXCr  A BA. US. 


the  country  which  he  represented.  Thus  he 
was  able  to  render  an  indirect  but  essential 
service  in  cementing  the  kindly  feeling  which 
the  Russian  Empii’e  entertained,  for  the  Amer- 
ican Republic.  Russia  could  then  do  us  little 
good  and  almost  no  harm,  yet  the  friendship 
of  a great  European  power  had  a certain  moral 
value  in  those  days  of  our  national  infancy. 
That  friendship,  so  cordially  offered,  Mr.  Ad- 
ams was  fortunately  'well  fitted  to  conciliate, 
showing  in  his  foreign  callings  a tact  which  did 
not  mark  him  in  other  public  relations.  He  was 
perhaps  less  liked  by  his  travelling  fellow  coun- 
trymen than  by  the  Russians.  The  paltry  am- 
bition of  a certain  class  of  Americans  for  intro- 
duction to  high  society  disgusted  him  greatly, 
and  he  was  not  found  an  efficient  ally  by  these 
would-be  comrades  of  the  Russian  aristocracy. 
“ The  ambition  of  young  Americans  to  crowd 
themselves  upon  European  courts  and  into  the 
company  of  nobility  is  a very  ridiculous  and 
not  a very  proud  feature  of  their  character,”  he 
wrote  ; “ there  is  nothing,  in  my  estimate  of 
things,  meaner  than  courting  society  Avhere,  if 
admitted,  it  is  only  to  be  despised.”  He  him- 
self happily  combined  extensive  acquirements, 
excellent  ability,  diplomatic  and  courtly  experi- 
ence, and  natural  independence  of  character 
without  ill-bred  self-assertion,  and  never  failed 


jonx  QUIXCY  ADAMS.  73 

50  create  a good  impression  in  the  many  circles 
into  which  his  foreign  career  introduced  him. 

The  ambassadors  and  ministers  from  Euro- 
pean powers  at  St.  Petersburg  were  constantly 
wrangling  about  precedence  and  like  petty  mat- 
ters of  court  etiquette.  “ In  all  these  contro- 
versies,” writes  iMr.  Adams,  “ I have  endeavored 
to  consider  it  as  an  affair  in  which  I,  as  an 
American  minister,  had  no  concern ; and  that 
my  only  principle  is  to  dispute  upon  precedence 
with  nobody.”  A good-natured  contempt  for 
European  follies  may  be  read  between  tlie  lines 
of  this  remark ; wherein  it  may  be  said  that 
the  Monroe  doctrine  is  applied  to  court  eti- 
quette. 

He  always  made  it  a point  to  live  within  the 
meagre  income  which  the  United  States  allowed 
him,  but  seems  to  have  suffered  no  diminution 
of  consideration  for  this  reason.  One  morning, 
walking  on  the  Fontanka,  he  met  the  Emperor, 
who  said : “ Mons.  Adams,  il  y a cent  ans  que 
je  ne  vous  ai  vu ; ” and  then  continuing  the  con- 
versation, “ asked  me  whether  I intended  to 
take  a house  in  the  country  this  summer.  I said, 
No.  . . . ‘And  why  so?’  said  he.  I was  hes- 
itating upon  an  answer  when  he  relieved  me 
from  embarrassment  oy  saying,  ‘ Peutetre  sont- 
ee  des  considerations  de  finance  ? ’ As  he  said  it 
mth  perfect  good  humor  and  with  a smile,  I 


74 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


replied  in  the  same  manner  : ‘ Mais  Sire,  elles 
y sont  pour  une  bonne  part.'  ” ^ 

The  volume  of  the  journal  which  records  this 
residence  in  St.  Petersburg  is  very  interesting 
as  a picture  of  Russian  life  and  manners  in 
high  society.  Few  travellers  write  anything 
nearly  so  vivid,  so  thorough,  or  so  trustworthy 
as  these  entries.  Moreover,  during  the  whole 
period  of  his  stay  the  great  wars  of  Napoleon 
wei’e  constantly  increasing  the  astonishment  of 
mankind,  and  created  intense  excitement  at  the 
Court  of  Russia.  These  feelings  waxed  stronger 
as  it  grew  daily  more  likely  that  the  Emperor 
would  have  to  take  his  turn  also  as  a party  de- 
fendant in  the  great  conflict.  Then  at  last 
came  the  fact  of  war,  the  invasion  of  Russia, 
the  burning  of  Moscow,  the  disastrous  retreat 
of  the  invaders  ending  in  ignominious  flight, 
the  advance  of  the  allies,  finally  the  capture  of 
Paris.  All  this  while  Mr.  Adams  at  St.  Peters- 
burg witnessed  first  the  alarm  and  then  the  ex- 
ultation of  the  court  and  the  people  as  the 
rumors  now  of  defeat,  anon  of  victory,  were 
brought  by  the  couriers  at  tantalizing  intervals ; 
and  he  saw  the  rejoicings  and  illuminations 
which  rendered  the  Russian  capital  so  brilliant 
and  glorious  during  the  last  portion  of  his  res- 

1 An  interesting  sketch  of  his  household  and  its  expensei 
B to  be  found  in  ii  Diary,  193. 


JOUN  QUISCY  ADAMS. 


75 


.deuce.  It  was  an  experience  well  worth  hav- 
ing, and  which  is  pleasantly  depicted  in  the 
Diary. 

In  September,  1812,  Count  Romanzoff  sug- 
gested to  Mr.  Adams  the  readiness  of  the  Em- 
peror to  act  as  mediator  in  bringing  about  peace 
between  the  United  States  and  England.  The 
suggestion  was  promptly  acted  upon,  but  with 
no  directly  fortunate  results.  The  American 
government  acceded  at  once  to  the  proposi 
tion,  and  at  the  risk  of  an  impolitic  display 
of  readiness  dispatched  Messrs.  Gallatin  and 
Bayard  to  act  as  Commissioners  jointly  with  Mr. 
Adams  in  the  negotiations.  These  gentlemen, 
however,  arrived  in  St.  Petersburg  only  to  find 
themselves  in  a very  awkward  position.  Their 
official  character  might  not  properly  be  con- 
sidered as  attaching  unless  England  should  ac- 
cept the  offer  of  mediation.  But  England  had 
refused,  in  the  first  instance,  to  do  this,  and  she 
now  again  reiterated  her  refusal  without  regard 
for  the  manifestation  of  willingness  on  the 
Dart  of  the  United  States.  Further,  Mr.  Gal- 
latin’s nomination  was  rejected  by  the  Senate 
after  his  departure,  on  the  ground  that  his  re- 
tention of  the  post  of  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury was  incompatible,  under  the  Constitution, 
with  this  diplomatic  function.  So  the  United 
States  appeared  in  a very  annoying  attitude , 


76 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


her  Commissioners  were  uncomfortable  and 
somewhat  humibated ; Hussia  felt  a certain 
measure  of  vexation  at  the  brusque  and  positive 
rejection  of  her  friendly  proposition  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain ; and  that  country  alone  came 
out  of  the  affair  with  any  self-satisfaction. 

But  by  the  time  when  all  hopes  of  peace 
through  the  friendly  offices  of  Russia  were  at 
an  end,  that  stage  of  the  conflict  had  been 
reached  at  which  both  parties  were  quite  ready 
to  desist.  The  United  States,  though  triumph- 
ing in  some  brilliant  naval  victories,  had  been 
having  a sorry  experience  on  land,  where,  as 
the  Russian  minister  remarked,  “ England  did 
as  she  pleased.”  A large  portion  of  the  people 
were  extremely  dissatisfied,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible to  ignore  that  the  outlook  did  not  promise 
better  fortunes  in  the  future  than  had  been  en- 
countered in  the  past.  On  the  other  hand, 
England  had  nothing  substantial  to  expect  from 
a continuance  of  the  struggle,  except  heavy  ad- 
ditional expenditure  which  it  was  not  then  the 
fashion  to  compel  the  worsted  party  to  recoup. 
She  accordingly  intimated  her  readiness  to  send 
Commissioners  to  Gottingen,  for  which  place 
Ghent  was  afterwards  substituted,  to  meet 
American  Commissioners  and  settle  terms  of 
pacification.  The  United  States  renewed  the 
powers  of  Messi's.  Adams,  Bayard,  and  Galla 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


77 


Lin,  a new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  having  in 
the  mean  time  been  appointed,  and  added  Jon- 
athan Russell,  then  Minister  to  Sweden,  and 
Henry  Clay.  England  deputed  Lord  Gambler, 
an  admiral,  Dr.  Adams,  a publicist,  and  l\Ir. 
Goulbourn,  a member  of  Parliament  and  Under 
Secretary  of  State.  These  eight  gentlemen  ac- 
cordingly met  in  Ghent  on  August  7,  1814. 

It  was  upwards  of  four  months  before  an 
agreement  w^as  reached.  During  this  period 
Mr.  Adams  kept  his  Diary  with  much  more 
even  than  his  wonted  faithfulness,  and  it  un- 
doubtedly presents  the  most  vivid  picture  in 
existence  of  the  labors  of  treaty-making  diplo- 
matists. The  eight  were  certainly  an  odd  as- 
semblage of  peacemakers.  The  ill-blood  and 
wranglings  between  the  opposing  Commissions 
were  bad  -enough,  yet  hardl}^  equalled  the  in- 
testine dissensions  between  the  American  Com- 
missioners themselves.  That  the  spirit  of  peace 
should  ever  have  emanated  from  such  an  uni- 
versal embroilment,  is  almost  sufficiently  sur- 
prising to  be  regarded  as  a miracle.  At  the 
very  beginning,  or  even  before  fairly  beginning, 
the  British  party  roused  the  jealous  ire  of  the 
Americans  by  proposing  that  they  all  should 
meet,  for  exchanging  their  full  powers,  at  the 
lodgings  of  the  Englishmen.  The  Americans 
look  fire  at  this  “ offensive  pretension  to  supe- 


78 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


riority”  Avliicli  was  “the  usage  from  Ambassa- 
dors to  Ministers  of  an  inferior  order.”  Mr, 
Adams  cited  Martens,  and  Mr.  Bayard  read 
a case  from  Ward’s  “Law  of  Nations.”  Mr. 
Adams  suggested  sending  a pointed  reply,  agree- 
ing to  meet  the  British  Commissioners  “ at  any 
place  other  than  their  own  lodgings  ; ” but  Mr. 
Gallatin,  whose  valuable  function  was  destined 
to  be  the  keeping  of  the  peace  among  his  frac- 
tious colleagues,  as  well  as  betwixt  them  and  the 
Englishmen,  substituted  the  milder  phrase,  “ at 
any  place  which  maybe  mutually  agreed  upon.” 
The  first  meeting  accordingly  took  place  at  the 
Hotel  des  Pays  Bas,  where  it  was  arranged  that 
the  subsequent  conferences  should  be  held  al- 
ternately at  the  quarters  of  the  two  Commis- 
sions. Then  followed  expressions,  conventional 
and  proper  but  wholly  untrue,  of  mutual  sen- 
timents of  esteem  and  good-will. 

No  sooner  did  the  gentlemen  begin  to  get 
seriously 'at  the  work  before  them,  than  the 
most  discouraging  prospects  were  developed. 
The  British  first  presented  their  demands,  as 
follows:  1.  That  the  United  States  should  con- 
clude a peace  with  the  Indian  allies  of  Great 
Britain,  and  that  a species  of  neutral  belt  of 
Indian  territoi-y  should  be  established  between 
the  dominions  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  so  that  these  dominions  should  be  no 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


79 


uliere  conterminous,  upon  whicli  belt  or  bar- 
rier neither  power  should  be  permitted  to  en- 
croach even  by  purchase,  and  the  boundaries  of 
which  should  be  settled  in  this  treaty.  2.  That 
the  United  States  should  keep  no  naval  force 
upon  the  Great  Lakes,  and  should  neither  main- 
tain their  existing  forts  nor  build  new  ones  upon 
their  northern  frontier ; it  was  even  required 
that  the  boundary  line  should  run  along  the 
southern  shore  of  the  lakes  ; while  no  corre- 
sponding restriction  was  imposed  upon  Great 
Britain,  because  she  was  stated  to  have  no  pro- 
jects of  conquest  as  against  her  neighbor.  3. 
That  a piece  of  the  province  of  Maine  should 
be  ceded,  in  order  to  give  the  English  a road 
from  Halifax  to  Quebec.  4.  That  the  stipula- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  1783,  conferring  on  Eng- 
lish subjects  the  right  of  navigating  the  Mis- 
sissippi, should  be  now  formally  renewed. 

The  Americans  were  astounded  it  seemed 
to  them  hardly  worth  while  to  have  come  so 
far  to  listen  to  such  propositions.  Concerning 
the  proposed  Indian  pacification  they  had  not 
even  any  powers,  the  United  States  being  al- 
ready busied  in  negotiating  a treaty  with  the 
tribes  as  independent  powers.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  neutral  Indian  belt  was  manifestly 
contrary  to  the  established  policy  and  obvious 
destiny  of  the  nation.  Neither  was  the  answer 


so 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


agreeable,  wliich  was  returned  by  Dr.  Adams 
to  the  inquiry  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  with 
tliose  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  bad 
already  settled  in  those  parts  of  Michigan,  Il- 
linois, and  Ohio,  included  within  the  territory 
which  it  was  now  proposed  to  make  inalienably 
Indian.  He  said  that  these  people,  amounting 
perhaps  to  one  hundred  thousand,  “ must  shift 
for  themselves.”  The  one-sided  disarmament 
upon  the  lakes  and  along  the  frontier  was,  by 
the  understanding  of  all  nations,  such  an  humil- 
iation as  is  inflicted  only  on  a crushed  adversary. 
No  return  was  offered  for  the  road  between  Hal- 
ifax and  Quebec  ; nor  for  the  right  of  navigating 
the  Mississippi.  The  treaty  of  peace  of  1783, 
made  in  ignorance  of  the  topography  of  the 
unexplored  northern  country,  had  established 
an  impossible  boundary  line  running  from  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  westward  along  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel  to  the  Mississippi;  and  as  appurte- 
nant to  the  British  territory,  thus  supposed  to 
touch  the  river,  a right  of  navigation  upon  it 
was  given.  It  had  since  been  discovered  that 
a line  on  that  parallel  would  never  touch  the 
Mississippi.  The  same  treaty  had  also  secured 
for  the  United  States  certain  rights  concerning 
the  Northeastern  fisheries.  The  English  now 
insisted  upon  a re-affirmance  of  the  privilege 
given  to  them,  without  a re-affirmance  of  tha 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


81 


privilege  given  to  the  United  States;  ignoring 
the  fact  that  the  recent  acquisition  of  Lpui- 
siana,  making  the  Mississippi  vrholly  Araeri 
can,  materially  altered  the  propriety  of  a Brit 
ish  right  of  navigation  upon  it. 

Apart  from  the  intolerable  character  of  these 
demands,  the  personal  bearing  of  the  English 
Commissioners  did  not  tend  to  mitigate  the 
chagrin  of  the  Americans.  The  formal  civil- 
ities had  counted  with  the  American  Commis- 
sioners for  more  than  they  were  worth,  and  had 
induced  them,  in  preparing  a long  dispatch  to 
the  home  government,  to  insert  “ a paragraph 
complimentary  to  the  personal  deportment  ” of 
the  British.  But  before  they  sent  off  the  doc- 
ument they  revised  it  and  struck  out  these 
pleasant  phrases.  Not  many  days  after  the 
first  conference  Mr.  Adams  notes  that  the  tone 
of  the  English  Commissioners  was  even  “ more 
peremptory,  and  their  language  more  over- 
bearing, than  at  the  former  conferences.”  A 
little  farther  on  he  remarks  that  “ the  Brit- 
ish note  is  overbearing  and  insulting  in  its 
tone,  like  the  two  former  ones.”  Again  he 
says : — 

“ The  tone  of  all  the  British  notes  is  arrogant, 
overbearing,  and  offensive.  The  tone  of  ours  is 
neither  so  bold  nor  so  spirited  as  I think  it  should 
he.  It  is  too  much  on  the  defensive,  and  too  exces- 


82 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


sive  in  the  caution  to  say  nothiug  irritating.  I liave 
seldom  been  able  to  prevail  upon  my  colleagues  to 
insert  anything  in  the  style  of  retort  upon  the  harsh 
and  reproachful  matter  which  we  receive.” 

Many  little  passages-at-arms  in  the  confer- 
ences are  recited  which  amply  bear  out  these 
remarks  as  regards  both  parties.  Perhaps, 
however,  it  should  be  admitted  that  the  Amer- 
icans made  up  for  the  self-restraint  which  they 
practised  in  conference,  by  the  disagreements 
and  bickerings  in  which  they  indulged  when 
consulting  among  themselves.  Mr.  Gallatin’s 
serene  temper  and  cool  head  were  hardly  taxed 
to  keep  the  peace  among  his  excited  colleagues. 
Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Clay  were  especially  prone 
to  suspicions  and  to  outbursts  of  angei’.  Mr. 
Adams  often  and  candidly  admits  as  much  of 
himself,  apparently  not  without  good  reason. 
At  first  the  onerous  task  of  drafting  the  nu- 
merous documents  which  the  Commission  had 
to  present  devolved  upon  him,  a labor  for 
which  he  was  well  fitted  in  all  respects  save, 
perhaps,  a tendency  to  prolixity.  He  did  not, 
however,  succeed  in  satisfying  his  comrades, 
and  the  criticisms  to  which  they  subjected  his 
composition  galled  his  self-esteem  severely,  so 
much  so  that  ere  long  he  altogether  relin- 
quished this  function,  which  was  thereafter 
performed  chiefly  by  Mr.  Gallatin.  As  early 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


83 


as  August  21,  ]\Ir.  Adams  says,  not  without 
evident  bitterness,  that  though  they  all  were 
agreed  on  the  general  view  of  the  subject,  yet 
in  his  “ exposition  of  it,  one  objects  to  the  form, 
another  to  the  substance,  of  almost  every  par- 
agraph.” Mr.  Gallatin  would  strike  out  every- 
thing possibly  offensive  to  the  Englishmen ; 
Mr.  Clay  would  draw  his  pen  through  every 
figurative  expression  ; Mr.  Russell,  not  content 
with  agreeing  to  all  the  objections  of  both  the 
others,  would  further  amend  the  construction 
of  every  sentence  ; and  finally  ]\Ir.  Bayard 
would  insist  upon  wilting  all  over  again  in  his 
own  language.  All  this  nettled  Mr.  Adams  ex- 
ceedingly. On  September  24  he  again  writes 
that  it  was  agreed  to  adopt  an  article  which  he 
had  drawn,  “though  with  objections  to  almost 
every  word  ” which  he  had  used.  “ This,”  he 
says,  “is  a severity  with  which  I alone  am 
treated  in  our  discussions  by  all  my  colleagues. 
Almost  everything  written  by  any  of  the  rest 
is  rejected,  or  agreed  to  with  very  little  criti- 
cism, verbal  or  substantial.  But  every  line 
that  I write  passes  a gauntlet  of  objections  by 
every  one  of  my  colleagues,  which  finally  is 
sues,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  rejection  of  it 
all.”  Pie  reflects,  with  a somewhat  forced  air 
of  self-discipline,  that  this  must  indicate  some 
taultiness  in  his  composition  which  he  must  try 


84 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


to  correct ; but  in  fact  it  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  he  was  seldom  persuaded  that  bis  papers 
were  improved.  Amid  all  tbis  we  see  in  tbe 
Diary  many  exhibitions  of  vexation.  One  day 
he  acknowledges,  “ I cannot  always  restrain  tbe 
irritability  of  my  temper  ; ” another  day  be  in- 
formed bis  colleagues,  “ with  too  much  warmth, 
that  they  might  be  assured  I was  as  determined 
as  they  were  ; ” again  be  reflects,  “ I,  too,  must 
not  forget  to  keep  a constant  guard  upon  my 
temper,  for  tbe  time  is  evidently  approaching 
when  it  will  be  wanted.”  Mr.  Gallatin  alone 
seems  not  to  have  exasperated  him ; Mr.  Clay 
and  be  were  constantly  in  discussion,  and  often 
pretty  hotly.  Instead  of  coming  nearer  to- 
gether, as  time  went  on,  these  two  fell  farther 
apart.  What  Mr.  Clay  thought  of  Mr.  Adams 
may  probably  be  inferred  from  what  we  know 
that  Mr.  A dams  thought  of  hlr.  Clay.  “ hlr. 
Clay  is  losing  liis  temper,  and  growing  peevish 
and  fractious,”  he  writes,  on  October  31;  and 
constantly  he  repeats  the  like  complaint.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  precise  New  Englander  and 
the  impetuous  Westerner  were  kept  asunder 
not  only  by  local  interests  but  by  habits  and 
modes  of  thought  utterly  dissimilar.  Some 
amusing  glimpses  of  their  private  life  illustrate 
this  difference.  Mr.  Adams  worked  hard  ana 
diligently,  allowing  himself  little  leisure  fo» 


JOHN  an  INC  T ADAMS. 


85 


pleasure  ; but  Mr.  Clay,  without  actually  neg- 
lecting his  duties,  yet  managed  to  find  ample 
time  for  enjoyment.  More  than  once  Mr.  Ad- 
ams notes  that,  as  he  rose  about  five  o’clock  in 
the  morninof  to  light  his  own  fii’e  and  begin 
the  labors  of  the  day  by  candle-light,  he  heard 
the  parties  breaking  up  and  leaving  Mr.  Clay’s 
rooms  across  the  entry,  where  they  had  been 
playing  cards  all  night  long.  In  these  little 
touches  one  sees  the  distinctive  characters  of 
the  men  well  portrayed. 

The  very  extravagance  of  the  British  de- 
mands at  least  saved  the  Americans  from  per- 
plexity. Mr.  Clay,  indeed,  cherished  an  “ in- 
conceivable idea  ” that  the  Englishmen  would 
“ finish  by  receding  from  the  ground  they  had 
taken ; ” but  meantime  there  could  be  no  differ- 
ence of  opinion  concerning  the  impossibility  of 
meeting  them  upon  that  ground.  Mr.  Adams, 
never  lacking  in  courage,  actually  wished  to 
argue  with  them  that  it  would  be  for  the  in- 
terests of  Great  Britain  not  less  than  of  the 
United  States  if  Canada  should  be  ceded  to 
the  latter  power.  Unfortunately  his  colleagues 
would  not  support  him  in  this  audacious  policy, 
the  humor  of  which  is  delicious.  It  would  have 
been  infinitely  droll  to  see  how  the  British  Com- 
missioners would  have  hailed  such  a oroposition, 
by  way  of  appropriate  termination  of  a conflict 


86 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


in  which  the  forces  of  their  nation  had  cap- 
tured and  ransacked  the  capital  city  of  the 
Americans ! 

On  August  21  the  Englishmen  invited  the 
Americans  to  dinner  on  the  following  Saturday. 
“ The  chance  is,”  wrote  Mr.  Adams,  “ that  be- 
fore that  time  the  whole  negotiation  will  be  at 
an  end.”  The  banquet,  however,  did  come  off, 
and  a few  more  succeeded  it ; feasts  not  marked 
by  any  great  geniality  or  warmth,  except  per- 
haps occasionally  warmth  of  discussion.  So  sure 
were  the  Americans  that  they  were  about  to 
break  off  the  negotiations  that  Mr.  Adams  be- 
gan to  consider  by  what  route  he  should  return 
to  St.  Petersburg ; and  they  declined  to  renew 
the  tenure  of  their  quarters  for  more  than  a few 
days  longer.  Like  alarms  were  of  frequent  oc- 
cuiTence,  even  almost  to  the  very  day  of  agree- 
ment. On  September  15,  at  a dinner  given  by 
the  American  Commissioners,  Lord  Gambier 
asked  Mr.  Adams  whether  he  would  I'eturn  im- 
mediately to  St.  Petersburg.  “ Yes,”  replied 
Mr.  Adams,  “ that  is,  if  you  send  us  aAvay.” 
His  lordship  “ replied  with  assurances  how 
deeply  he  lamented  it,  and  with  a hope  that  we 
should  one  day  be  friends  again.”  On  the  same 
occasion  Mr.  Goulburn  said  that  probably  the 
last  note  of  the  Americans  would  “ terminate 
*he  business,”  and  that  they  “ must  fight  it  out.’ 


JORN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


87 


Figlitiiig  it  out  was  a mucli  less  paiuful  prospect 
for  Great  Britain  just  at  that  juncture  than  for 
the  United  States,  as  the  Americans  realized 
with  profound  anxiety.  “We  so  fondly  cling 
to  the  vain  hope  of  peace,  that  every  new  proof 
of  its  impossibility  operates  upon  us  as  a dis- 
appointment,” wrote  Mr.  Adams.  No  amount 
of  pride  could  altogether  conceal  the  fact  that 
the  American  Commissioners  represented  the 
worsted  party,  and  though  they  never  openly 
said  so  even  among  themselves,  yet  indirectly 
they  were  obliged  to  recognize  the  truth.  On 
November  10  we  find  Mr.  Adams  proposing  to 
make  concessions  not  permitted  by  their  instruc- 
tions, because,  as  he  said : — 

“ I felt  so  sure  that  [the  home  government]  would 
now  gladly  take  the  state  before  the  war  as  the  gen- 
eral basis  of  the  peace,  that  I was  prepared  to  take 
on  me  the  responsibility  of  trespassing  upon  their 
instructions  thus  far.  Not  only  so,  but  I would  at 
this  moment  cheerfully  give  my  life  for  a peace  on 
this  basis.  If  peace  was  possible,  it  would  be  on  no 
other.  I had  indeed  no  hope  that  the  proposal  would 
be  accepted.” 

Mr.  Clay  thought  that  the  British  would 
laugh  at  this  : “ They  would  say.  Ay,  ay ! pretty 
fellows  you,  to  think  of  getting  out  of  the  war 
as  well  as  you  got  into  it.”  This  was  not  con- 
soling for  the  representatives  of  that  side  which 


88 


JOHN  QUINCY  AD  Alls. 


had  declared  war  for  the  purpose  of  curing 
grievances  and  vindicating -alleged  rights.  But 
that  Mr.  Adams  correctly  read  the  wishes  of 
the  government  was  proved  within  a very  few 
days  by  the  receipt  of  express  authority  from 
home  “ to  conclude  the  peace  on  the  basis  of  the 
status  ante  helium^  Three  days  afterwards,  on 
November  27,  three  and  a half  months  after 
the  vexatious  haggling  had  been  begun,  we  en- 
counter in  the  Diary  the  first  real  gleam  of  hope 
of  a successful  termination:  “All  the  difficul- 
ties to  the  conclusion  of  a peace  appear  to  be 
now  so  nearly  removed,  that  my  colleagues  all 
consider  it  as  certain.  I myself  think  it  prob- 
able.” 

There  were,  however,  some  three  weeks  more 
of  negotiation  to  be  gone  through  before  the 
consummation  was  actually  achieved,  and  the 
ill  blood  seemed  to  increase  as  the  end  was  ap- 
proached. The  differences  between  the  Amer- 
ican Commissioners  waxed  especially  serious 
concerning  the  fisheries  and  the  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi.  Mr.  Adams  insisted  that  if  the 
treaty  of  peace  had  been  so  far  abrogated  by 
the  war  as  to  render  necessary  a re-affirmance 
of  the  British  right  of  navigating  the  Missis- 
sippi, then  a re -affirmance  of  the  American 
rights  in  the  Northeastern  fisheries  was  equally 
necessary.  This  the  English  Commissioners  de 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


89 


nied.  Mr.  Adams  said  it  was  only  an  exchange 
of  privileges  presumably  equivalent.  Mr.  Clay, 
however,  was  firmly  resolved  to  prevent  all  stip- 
ulations admitting  such  a right  of  navigation, 
and  the  better  to  do  so  he  was  quite  willing  to 
let  the  fisheries  go.  The  navigation  privilege 
he  considered  “ much  too  important  to  be  con- 
ceded for  the  mere  liberty  of  drying  fish  upon 
a desert,”  as  he  was  pleased  to  describe  a right 
for  which  the  United  States  has  often  been 
ready  to  go  to  war  and  may  yet  some  time  do 
so.  “ Mr.  Clay  lost  his  temper,”  writes  Mr. 
Adams  a day  or  two  later,  “ as  he  generally 
does  whenever  this  right  of  the  British  to  nav- 
igate the  Mississippi  is  discussed.  He  was  ut- 
terly averse  to  admitting  it  as  an  equivalent  for 
a stipulation  securing  the  contested  part  of  the 
fisheries.  He  said  the  more  he  heard  of  this 
[the  right  of  fishing],  the  more  convinced  he 
was  that  it  was  of  little  or  no  value.  He  should 
be  glad  to  get  it  if  he  could,  but  he  was  sure 
the  British  would  not  ultimately  grant  it.  That 
the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  an  object  of  immense  importance, 
and  he  could  see  no  sort  of  reason  for  granting 
it  as  an  equivalent  for  the  fisheries.”  Thus 
spoke  the  representative  of  the  West.  The  New 
Englander  — the  son  of  the  man  whose  exertions 
had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  originally  ob- 


90 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


taining  the  grant  of  the  Northeastern  fishery 
privileges,  — naturally  went  to  the  other  ex- 
treme. He  thought  “ the  British  right  of  nav 
igating  the  Mississipjji  to  be  as  nothing,  consid- 
ered as  a grant  from  us.  It  was  secured  to  them 
by  the  peace  of  1783,  they  had  enjoyed  it  at  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  it  had  never  been 
injurious  in  the  slightest  degree  to  our  own 
people,  and  it  appeared  to  [him]  that  the  Brit- 
ish claim  to  it  was  just  and  equitable.”  Further 
he  “ believed  the  right  to  this  navigation  to  be 
a very  useless  thing  to  the  British.  . . . But 
their  national  pride  and  honor  were  interested 
in  it ; the  government  could  not  make  a peace 
which  would  abandon  it.”  The  fisheries,  how- 
ever, Mr.  Adams  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
inestimable  and  inalienable  of  American  rights. 
It  is  evident  that  the  United  States  could  ill 
have  spared  either  Mr.  Adams  or  Mr.  Clay  from 
the  negotiation,  and  the  joinder  of  the  two, 
however  fraught  with  discomfort  to  themselves, 
well  served  substantial  American  interests. 

Mr.  Adams  thought  the  British  perfidious, 
and  suspected  them  of  not  entertaining  any 
honest  intention  of  concluding  a peace.  On 
December  12,  after  an  exceedingly  quarrelsome 
conference,  he  records  his  belief  that  the  British 
have  “ insidiously  kept  open  ” two  points,  “for 
the  sake  of  finally  breaking  off  the  negotiations 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


91 


and  making  all  their  other  concessions  proofs  of 
their  extreme  moderation,  to  put  upon  us  the 
blame  of  the  rupture.” 

On  December  11  we  find  Mr,  Clay  ready 
“ for  a war  three  years  longer,”  and  anxious 
“to  begin  to  play  at  brag”  with  the  English- 
men. His  colleagues,  more  complaisant  or  hav- 
ing less  confidence  in  their  own  skill  in  that 
game,  found  it  difficult  to  placate  him ; he 
“ stalked  to  and  fro  across  the  chamber,  repeat- 
ing five  or  six  times,  ‘ I will  never  sign  a treaty 
upon  the  status  ante  helium  with  the  Indian 
article.  So  help  me  God  ! ’ ” The  next  day  there 
was  an  angry  controversy  with  the  English- 
men. The  British  troops  had  taken  and  held 
hloose  Island  in  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  the  right- 
ful ownership  of  which  was  in  dispute.  The  title 
was  to  be  settled  by  arbitrators.  But  the  ques- 
tion, whether  the  British  should  restore  posses- 
sion of  the  island  pending  the  arbitration, 
aroused  bitter  discussion.  “ Mr.  Goulburn  and 
Dr.  Adams  (the  Englishman)  immediately  took 
fire,  and  Goulburn  lost  all  control  of  his  temper. 
He  has  always  in  such  cases,”  says  the  Diary, 
“ a sort  of  convulsive  agitation  about  him,  and 
the  tone  in  which  he  speaks  is  more  insulting 
than  the  language  which  he  uses.”  Mr.  Bayard 
referred  to  the  case  of  the  Falkland  Islands. 
“ ‘Why  ’ (in  a transport  of  rage),  said  Goul- 


92 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


burn,  ‘ in  that  case  we  sent  a fleet  and  troops 
and  drove  the  fellows  oft' ; and  that  is  what  we 
ought  to  have  done  in  this  case.’  ” Mr.  J.  Q. 
Adams,  whose  extensive  and  accurate  informa* 
tion  more  than  once  annoyed  his  adversaries, 
stated  that,  as  he  remembered  it,  “the  Spaniards 
in  that  case  had  driven  the  British  off,”  — and 
Lord  Gambier  helped  his  blundering  colleague 
out  of  the  difficulty  by  suggesting  a new  sub- 
ject, much  as  the  defeated  heroes  of  the  Iliad 
used  to  find  happy  refuge  from  death  in  a 
god-sent  cloud  of  dust.  It  is  amusing  to  read 
that  in  the  midst  of  such  scenes  as  these  the 
show  of  courtesy  was  still  maintained;  and 
on  December  13  the  Americans  “ all  dined  with 
the  British  Plenipotentiaries,”  though  “ the 
party  was  more  than  usually  dull,  stiff,  and  re- 
served.” It  was  certainly  forcing  the  spirit  of 
good  fellowship.  The  next  day  Mr.  Clay  noti- 
fied his  colleagues  that  they  were  going  “ to 
make  a damned  bad  treaty,  and  he  did  not  know 
whether  he  would  sign  it  or  not ; ” and  Mr. 
Adams  also  said  that  he  saw  that  the  rest  had 
made  up  their  minds  “ at  last  to  yield  the  fish- 
ery point,”  in  which  case  he  also  could  not  sign 
the  treaty.  On  the  following  day,  however,  the 
Americans  were  surprised  by  receiving  a note 
from  the  British  Commissioners,  wherein  they 
made  the  substantial  concession  of  omitting 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


93 


from  the  treaty  all  reference  to  the  fisheries  and 
the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  But  Mr. 
Clay,  on  reading  the  note,  “ manifested  some 
chagrin,”  and  “ still  talked  of  breaking  off  the 
negotiation,”  even  asking  Mr.  Adams  to  join 
him  in  so  doing,  which  request,  however,  Mr. 
Adams  veiy  reasonably  refused.  ]\Ir.  Clay  had 
also  been  anxious  to  stand  out  for  a distinct 
abandonment  of  the  alleged  right  of  impress- 
ment ; but  upon  this  point  he  found  none  of  his 
colleagues  ready  to  back  him,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled perforce  to  yield.  Agreement  was  there- 
fore now  substantially  reached;  a few  minor 
matters  were  settled,  and  on  December  24, 1814, 
the  treaty  was  signed  by  all  the  eight  nego- 
tiators. 

It  was  an  astonishing  as  well  as  a happy 
result.  Never,  probably,  in  the  history  of  di- 
plomacy has  concord  been  produced  from  such 
discordant  elements  as  had  been  brought  to- 
gether in  Ghent.  Dissension  seemed  to  have 
become  the  mother  of  amity;  and  antipathies 
were  mere  preliminaries  to  a good  understand- 
ing; in  diplomacy  as  in  marriage  it  had  worked 
well  to  begin  with  a little  aversion.  But,  in 
truth,  this  consummation  was  largely  due  to 
what  had  been  going  on  in  the  English  Cab- 
inet. At  the  outset  Lord  Cast'iereagh  had  been 
very  unwilling  to  conclude  peace,  and  his  dis- 


94 


JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS. 


position  liad  found  expression  in  the  original 
intolerable  terms  prepared  by  the  British.  Com* 
missioners.  But  Lord  Liverpool  had  been 
equally  solicitous  on  the  other  side,  and  was 
said  even  to  have  tendered  his  resignation  to 
the  Prince  Regent,  if  an  accommodation  should 
not  be  effected.  His  endeavors  were  fortunately 
aided  by  events  in  Europe,  Pending  the  nego- 
tiations Lord  Castlereagh  went  on  a diplomatic 
errand  to  Vienna,  and  there  fell  into  such  threat- 
ening discussions  with  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
and  tlie  King  of  Prussia,  that  he  thought  it 
prudent  to  have  done  with  the  American  war, 
and  wrote  home  pacific  advices.  Hence,  at  last, 
came  such  concessions  as  satisfied  the  Amer- 
icans. 

The  treaty  established  “a  firm  and  universal 
peace  between  his  Britannic  Majesty  and  the 
United  States.”  Each  party  was  to  restore  all 
captured  territory,  except  that  the  islands  of 
which  the  title  was  in  dispute  were  to  remain 
in  the  occupation  of  the  party  holding  them  at 
the  time  of  ratification  until  that  title  should  be 
settled  by  commissioners ; provision  was  made 
also  for  the  determination  of  all  the  open  ques- 
tions of  boundary  by  sundry  boards  of  commis- 
sioners ; each  party  was  to  make  peace  with 
the  Indian  allies  of  the  other.  Such  were,  iij 
substance,  the  only  points  touched  upon  by  this 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


95 


document.  Of  the  many  subjects  mootea  be- 
tween the  negotiators  scarcely  any  had  sur- 
vived the  fierce  contests  which  had  been  waged 
concerning  them.  The  whole  matter  of  the 
navigation  of  the  INIississippi,  access  to  that 
river,  and  a road  through  American  territory, 
had  been  dropped  by  the  British ; while  the 
Americans  had  been  well  content  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  Northeastern  fisheries,  which  they  re- 
garded as  still  their  own.  The  disarmament 
on  the  lakes  and  along  the  Canadian  border, 
and  the  neutralization  of  a strip  of  Indian 
territory,  were  yielded  by  the  English.  The 
Americans  were  content  to  have  nothing  said 
about  impressment ; nor  was  any  one  of  the 
many  illegal  rights  exercised  by  England  for- 
mally abandoned.  The  Americans  satisfied 
themselves  with  the  reflection  that  circum- 
stances had  rendered  these  points  now  only  mat- 
ters of  abstract  principle,  since  the  pacification 
of  Europe  had  removed  all  opportunities  and 
temptations  for  England  to  persist  in  her  pre- 
vious objectionable  courses.  For  the  future  it 
was  hardly  to  be  feared  that  she  would  again 
undertake  to  pursue  a policy  against  which 
it  was  evident  that  the  United  States  were  will- 
ing to  conduct  a serious  war.  There  was,  how- 
ever, no  provision  for  indemnification. 

Upon  a fair  consideration,  it  must  be  ad- 


96 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


mitted  that,  though  the  treaty  was  silent  upon 
all  the  points  which  the  United  States  had 
made  war  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing,  yet  the 
'country  had  every  reason  to  be  gratified  with 
the  result  of  the  negotiation.  The  five  Com- 
missioners had  done  themselves  ample  credit. 
They  had  succeeded  in  agreeing  with  each 
other ; they  had  avoided  any  fracture  of  a ne- 
gotiation which,  up  to  the  very  end,  seemed 
almost  daily  on  the  verge  of  being  broken  oS 
in  anger;  they  had  managed  really  to  lose  noth- 
ing, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  their  side  had  had 
decidedly  the  worst  of  the  struggle.  They  had 
negotiated  much  more  successfully  than  the 
armies  of  their  countrj^men  had  fought.  The 
Marquis  of  Wellesley  said,  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  that  “ in  his  opinion  the  American 
Commissioners  had  shown  a most  astonishing 
superiority  over  the  British  during  the  whole 
of  the  correspondence.”  One  cannot  help  wish- 
ing that  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  had  taken 
place  a little  earlier,  or  that  the  negotiation 
had  fallen  a little  later,  so  that  news  of  that 
brilliant  event  could  have  reached  the  ears  of 
the  insolent  Englishmen  at  Ghent,  who  had 
for  three  months  been  enjoying  the  malicious 
pleasure  of  lending  to  the  Americans  English 
newspapers  containing  accounts  of  American 
misfortunes.  But  that  fortunate  battle  was  no* 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


97 


fought  until  a few  days  after  the  eight  Commis- 
Bioiiers  had  signed  their  compact.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting illustration  of  the  slowness  of  commu- 
nication which  our  forefathers  had  to  endure, 
that  the  treaty  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  a sail- 
ing ship  in  time  to  travel  through  much  of  the 
country  simultaneously  with  the  report  of  this 
farewell  victory.  Two  such  good  pieces  of 
news  coming  together  set  the  people  wild  with 
delight.  Even  on  the  dry  pages  of  Niles’s 
Weekly  Register  occurs  the  triumphant  para- 
graph : “ Who  would  not  be  an  American  ? 
Long  live  the  Republic ! All  hail ! last  asylum 
of  oppressed  humanity ! Peace  is  signed  in  the 
arms  of  victory ! ” It  was  natural  that  most 
of  the  ecstasy  should  be  manifested  concerning 
the  military  triumph,  and  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  should  find  more  pleasure  in  glorifying 
General  Jackson  than  in  exalting  the  Commis- 
sioners. The  value  of  their  work,  however,  was 
well  proved  by  the  voice  of  Great  Britain.  In 
:he  London  Times  of  December  30  appeared 
a most  angry  tirade  against  the  treaty,  with 
bitter  sneers  at  those  who  called  the  peace  an 
‘‘honorable”  one.  England,  it  was  said,  “had 
attempted  to  force  her  principles  on  America, 
and  had  failed.”  Foreign  powers  would  say 
that  the  English  “ had  retired  from  the  combat 
with  the  stripes  yet  bleeding  on  their  backs, 

7 


98 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


— with  the  recent  defeats  at  Plattsburgh  and 
on  Lake  Champlain  unavenged.”  The  most 
gloomy  prognostications  of  further  wars  with 
America  when  her  naval  power  should  have 
waxed  much  greater  were  indulged.  The  loss 
of  prestige  in  Europe,  “ the  probable  loss  of  our 
trans- Atlantic  provinces,”  were  among  the  re- 
sults to  be  anticipated  from  this  treaty  into 
which  the  English  Commissioners  had  been  be- 
guiled by  the  Americans.  These  latter  were  re- 
viled with  an  abuse  which  was  really  the  high- 
est compliment.  The  family  name  of  Mr. 
Adams  gained  no  small  access  of  distinction  in 
England  from  this  business. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  Mr.  Adams 
went  to  Paris,  and  remained  there  until  the  mid- 
dle of  May,  1815,  thus  having  the  good  fortune 
to  witness  the  return  of  Napoleon  and  a great 
part  of  the  events  of  the  famous  “hundred  days.’’ 
On  May  26  he  arrived  in  London,  where  there 
awaited  him,  in  the  hands  of  the  Barings,  his 
commission  as  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary  to  Great  Britain.  His  first 
duty  was,  in  connection  with  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr. 
Gallatin,  to  negotiate  a treaty  of  commerce,  iu 
which  business  he  again  met  the  same  three 
British  Commissioners  by  whom  the  negotia 
tions  at  Ghent  had  been  conducted,  of  whose 
abilities  the  government  appeared  to  entertain 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


99 


a better  opinion  than  the  Marquis  of  Welles- 
ley had  expressed.  This  negotiation  had  been 
brought  so  far  towards  conclusion  by  his  col- 
leagues before  his  own  arrival  that  Mr.  Adams 
had  little  to  do  in  assisting  them  to  complete  it. 
This  little  having  been  done,  they  departed  and 
left  him  as  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James’s. 
Thus  he  fulfilled  Washington’s  prophecy,  by 
reaching  the  highest  rank  in  the  American  dip- 
lomatic service. 

Of  his  stay  in  Great  Britain  little  need  be 
said.  He  had  few  duties  of  importance  to  per- 
form. The  fisheries,  the  right  of  impressment, 
and  the  taking  away  and  selling  of  slaves  by 
British  naval  officers  during  the  late  war, 
formed  the  subjects  of  many  interviews  be- 
tween him  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  without,  how- 
ever, any  definite  results  being  reached.  But 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining,  towards  the  close  of 
his  stay,  some  slight  remission  of  the  severe  re- 
strictions placed  by  England  upon  our  trade 
with  her  West  Indian  colonies.  His  relations 
with  a cabinet,  in  which  the  principles  of 
Castlereagh  and  Canning  predominated,  could 
hardly  be  cordial,  yet  he  seems  to  have  been 
treated  with  perfect  civility.  Indeed,  he  was 
not  a man  whom  it  was  easy  even  for  an  Eng- 
lishman to  insult.  He  remarks  of  Castlerea-gh, 
After  one  of  his  first  interviews  with  that  noble- 


100 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


man  : “ His  deportment  is  sufficiently  grace- 
ful, and  his  person  is  handsome.  His  manner 
was  cold,  but  not  absolutely  repulsive.”  Be- 
fore he  left  he  had  the  pleasure  of  having  Mr. 
Canning  specially  seek  acquaintance  with  him. 
He  met,  of  course,  many  distinguished  and 
many  agreeable  persons  during  his  residence, 
and  partook  of  many  festivities,  especially  of 
numerous  civic  banquets  at  which  toasts  were 
formally  given  in  the  dullest  English  fashion 
and  he  was  obliged  to  display  his  capacity  for 
“ table-cloth  oratory,”  as  he  called  it,  more 
than  was  agreeable  to  him.  He  was  greatly 
bored  by  these  solemn  and  pompous  feedings. 
Partly  in  order  to  escape  them  he  took  a house 
at  Ealing,  and  lived  there  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  stay  in  England.  “ One  of  the 
strongest  reasons  for  my  remaining  out  of 
town,”  he  writes,  “is  to  escape  the  frequency 
of  invitations  at  late  hours,  which  consume  so 
much  precious  time,  and  with  the  perpetually 
mortifying  consciousness  of  inability  to  return 
the  civility  in  the  same  manner.”  The  repub- 
ixcan  simplicity,  not  to  say  poverty,  forced  upon 
American  representatives  abroad,  was  a very 
different  matter  in  the  censorious  and  un 
friendly  society  of  London  from  what  it  had 
been  at  the  kindly  disposed  Court  of  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  relationship  between  the  inothei 


JOHN  QUIKCY  ADAMS. 


101 


country  and  the  quondam  colonies,  especially 
at  that  juncture,  was  such  as  to  render  social 
life  intolerably  trying  to  an  under-paid  Ameri- 
can minister. 

Ml’.  Adams  remained  in  England  until  June 
15,  1817,  when  he  sailed  from  Cowes,  closing 
forever  his  long  and  honorable  diplomatic  ca- 
reer, and  bidding  his  last  farewell  to  Europe. 
He  returned  home  to  take  the  post  of  Secretary 
of  State  in  the  cabinet  of  James  hlonroe,  then 
•lately  inaugurated  as  President  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER  II. 


SECEETAIIY  OF  STATE  AND  PRESIDENT. 

From  tlie  capitals  of  Russia  and  Great  Brit- 
lin  to  tlie  capital  of  the  United  States  was 
a striking  change.  Washington,  in  its  early 
struggle  for  existence,  was  so  unattractive  a 
spot,  that  foreigners  must  have  been  at  a loss 
to  discover  the  principle  which  had  governed 
the  selection.  It  combined  all  the  ugliness  Avith 
all  the  discomfort  of  an  unprosperous  frontier 
settlement  on  an  ill-chosen  site.  What  must 
European  diplomats  have  thought  of  a capital 
city  Avhere  snakes  two  feet  long  invaded  gen- 
tlemen’s drawing-rooms,  and  a carriage,  bring- 
ing home  the  guests  from  a ball,  could  be  upset 
by  the  impenetrable  depth  of  quagmire  at  the 
very  door  of  a foreign  minister’s  residence.  A 
description  of  the  city  given  by  Mr.  Mills,  a 
Representative  from  Massachusetts,  in  1815,  is 
pathetic  in  its  unutterable  horror  : — 

“ It  is  impossible,”  he  writes,  “ for  me  to  describe 
to  you  my  feelings  on  entering  this  miserable  desert^ 
this  scene  of  desolation  and  horror.  . . . My  antici- 
pations were  almost  infinitely  short  of  the  reality,  and 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


103 


I can  truly  say  that  the  first  appearance  of  this  seat 
of  the  national  government  has  produced  in  me  noth- 
ing but  absolute  loathing  aud  disgust.” 

If  the  place  wore  such  a dreadful  aspect  to 
the  simple  denizen  of  a New  England  country 
town,  what  must  it  have  seemed  to  those  who 
were  familiar  with  London  and  Paris?  To 
them  the  social  life  must  have  been  scarcely 
less  dreary  than  the  rest  of  the  surroundings. 
Accordingly,  with  this  change  of  scene,  the 
Diary,  so  long  a record  of  festivities  some- 
times dull  and  formal,  but  generally  collecting 
interesting  aud  distinguished  persons,  ceases 
almost  wholly  to  refer  to  topics  of  society. 
Yet,  of  course,  even  the  foul  streets  could  not 
prevent  people  from  occasionally  meeting  to- 
gether. There  were  simple  tea-drinkings,  stu- 
pid weekly  dinners  at  the  President’s,  infre- 
quent receptions  by  Mrs.  Monroe,  card-parties 
and  conversation-parties,  which  at  the  British 
minister’s  were  very  “ elegant,”  and  at  the 
French  minister’s  were  more  gay.  Mons.  de 
Neuville,  at  his  dinners,  used  to  puzzle  and 
astound  the  plain-living  Yankees  by  serving 
dishes  of  “ turkeys  wuthout  bones,  and  pud- 
dings in  the  form  of  fowls,  fresh  cod  disguised 
like  a salad,  and  celery  like  oysters ; ” further, 
he  scandalized  some  and  demoralized  others  by 
caving  dancing  on  Saturday  evenings,  which 


104 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  New  England  ladies  had  been  “ educated  to 
consider  as  holy  time.”  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Adams 
used  to  give  weekly  parties  on  Tuesday  even- 
ings, and  apparently  many  pei’sons  stood  not  a 
little  in  awe  of  these  entertainments  and  of 
the  givers  of  them,  by  reason  of  their  superior 
familiarity  with  the  manners  and  customs  of 
the  best  society  of  Europe.  Mrs.  Adams  was, 
“ on  the  whole,  a very  pleasant  and  agreeable 
woman ; but  the  Secretary  [had]  no  talent  to 
entertain  a mixed  company,  either  by  conver- 
sation or  manners;  ” thus  writes  this  same  Mr. 
Mills,  whose  sentiments  towards  Mr.  Adams 
were  those  of  respect  rather  than  of  personal 
liking.  The  favorite  dissipation  then  consisted 
in  card-playing,  and  the  stakes  were  too  often 
out  of  all  just  proportion  to  the  assets  of  the 
gamesters.  At  one  time  Mr.  Clay  was  reputed 
to  have  lost  $8,000,  an  amount  so  considerable 
for  him  as  to  weigh  upon  his  mind  to  the  man- 
ifest detriment  of  his  public  functions.  But 
sometimes  the  gentlemen  resident  in  the  capital 
met  for  purposes  less  innocent  than  Saturday 
evening  cotillons,  or  even  than  extravagant  bet- 
ting at  the  card-table,  and  stirred  the  dullness 
of  society  by  a duel.  Mr.  Adams  tells  of  one 
affair  of  this  sort,  fought  between  ex-Senator 
Mason,  of  Virginia,  and  his  cousin,  wherein  the 
reeapons  used  were  muskets,  and  the  distance 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


10b 


was  only  six  paces.  Mason  was  killed ; his 
cousin  was  wounded,  and  only  by  a lucky  ac- 
cident escaped  with  his  life.  Mr.  Adams  had 
little  time  and  less  taste  for  either  the  amuse- 
ments or  the  dangers  thus  offered  to  him ; he 
preferred  to  go  to  bed  in  good  season,  to  get  up 
often  long  before  daybreak,  and  to  labor  assid- 
uously the  livelong  day.  His  favorite  exercise 
was  swimming  in  the  Potomac,  where  he  ac- 
complished feats  which  would  have  been  ex- 
traordinary for  a young  and  athletic  man. 

The  most  impoi'tant,  perplexing,  and  time- 
consuming  duties  then  called  for  by  the  condi- 
tion of  public  affairs,  happened  to  fall  Avithin 
Mr.  Adams’s  department.  Monroe’s  adminis- 
tration has  been  christened  the  “era  of  good 
feeling ; ” and,  so  far  as  political  divisions 
among  the  people  at  large  rvere  concerned,  this 
description  is  correct  enough.  There  rvere  no 
great  questions  of  public  policy  dividing  the 
nation.  There  could  hardly  be  said  to  be  two 
political  parties.  With  the  close  of  the  Avar 
the  malcontent  Federalists  had  lost  the  only 
substantial  principle  upon  Avhich  they  had  been 
able  vigorously  to  oppose  the  Administration, 
and  as  a natural  consequence  the  party  rapidly 
shrank  to  insignificant  proportions,  and  became 
of  hardly  more  importance  than  were  the  Jac- 
obites in  England  after  their  last  hopes  had 


106 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


been  quenched  by  the  failure  of  the  Rebellion 
of  ’45.  The  Federalist  faith,  like  Jacobitism, 
lingered  in  a few  neighborhoods,  and  was  main- 
tained by  a few  old  families,  who  managed  to 
associate  it  with  a sense  of  their  own  pride  and 
lignity ; but  as  an  effective  opposition  or  in- 
fluential party  organization,  it  was  effete,  and 
no  successor  was  rising  out  of  its  ruins.  In  a 
broad  way,  therefore,  there  was  political  har- 
mony to  a very  remarkable  degree. 

But  among  individuals  there  was  by  no 
means  a prevailing  good  feeling.  Not  held  to- 
gether by  the  pressure  exerted  by  the  antago- 
nism of  a strong  hostile  force,  the  prominent 
men  of  the  Cabinet  and  in  Congress  were 
busily  employed  in  promoting  their  own  indi- 
vidual interests.  Having  no  gi’eat  issues  with 
which  to  identify  themselves,  and  upon  which 
they  could  openly  and  honorably  contend  for 
the  approval  of  the  nation,  their  only  means 
for  securing  their  respective  private  ends  lay 
in  secretly  overreaching  and  supplanting  each 
other.  Infinite  skill  was  exerted  by  each  to 
inveigle  his  rival  into  an  unpopular  position  or 
a compromising  light.  By  a series  of  prece- 
dents Mr.  Adams,  as  Secretary  of  State,  ap- 
peared most  prominent  as  a candidate  for  the 
succession  to  the  Presidency.  But  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, in  the  Tieasury  Department,  had  beer 


JOny  QUINCY  ADAMS 


107 


very  near  obtaining  tbe  nomination  instead  of 
Monroe,  and  be  was  firmly  resolved  to  secure 
it  so  soon  as  Mr.  IMonroe’s  eight  years  should 
have  elapsed.  He,  therefore,  finding  much 
leisure  left  upon  bis  bands  by  the  not  very 
exacting  business  of  bis  oflSce,  devoted  bis  in- 
genuity to  devising  schemes  for  injuring  tbe 
prestige  of  Mr.  Adams.  Mr.  Clay  also  bad 
been  greatly  disappointed  that  be  bad  not  been 
summoned  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  and  so 
made  heir  apparent.  His  personal  enmity  was 
naturally  towards  Mr.  Monroe,  bis  political 
enmity  necessarily  also  included  Mr.  Adams, 
whose  appointment  be  bad  privately  sought  to 
prevent.  He  therefore  at  once  set  himself  as- 
siduously to  oppose  and  thwart  tbe  Administra- 
tion, and  to  make  it  unsuccessful  and  unpopu- 
lar. That  Clay  was  in  tbe  main  and  upon  all 
weighty  questions  an  honest  statesman  and  a 
real  patriot  must  be  admitted,  but  just  at  this 
period  no  national  crisis  called  bis  nobler  qual- 
ities into  action,  and  bfs  com’se  was  largely  in- 
fluenced by  selfish  considerations.  It  was  not 
long  before  Mr.  Calhoun  also  entered  tbe  lists, 
though  in  a manner  less  discreditable  to  bim- 
Belf,  personally,  than  were  tbe  resources  of 
Crawford  and  Clay.  Tbe  daily  narrations  and 
comments  of  Mr.  Adams  display  and  explain 
m a manner  highly  instructive,  if  not  altogether 


108 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


agreeable,  the  ambitions  and  the  manoeuvres, 
the  hollow  alliances  and  unworthy  intrigues, 
not  only  of  these  three,  but  also  of  many  other 
estimable  gentlemen  then  in  political  life.  The 
difference  between  those  days  and  our  own 
seems  not  so  great  as  the  laudatores  temporis 
acti  are  wont  to  proclaim  it.  The  elaborate 
machinery  which  has  since  been  constructed 
was  then  unknown  ; rivals  relied  chiefly  upon 
their  own  astuteness  and  the  aid  of  a few  per- 
sonal friends  and  adherents  for  carrying  on  con- 
tests and  attaining  ends  which  are  now  sought 
by  vastly  more  complex  methods.  What  the 
stage-coach  of  that  period  was  to  the  railroads 
of  to-day,  or  what  the  hand-loom  was  to  our 
great  cotton  mills,  such  also  was  the  political 
intriguing  of  cabinet  ministers,  senators,  and 
representatives,  to  our  present  party  ma- 
chinery. But  the  temper  was  no  better,  honor 
was  no  keener,  the  sense  of  public  duty  was 
little  more  disinterested  then  than  now.  One 
finds  no  serious  traces  of  vulgar  financial  dis- 
honesty recorded  in  these  pages,  in  which  Mr. 
Adams  has  handed  down  the  political  life  of 
the  second  and  third  decades  of  our  century 
with  a photographic  accuracy.  But  one  does 
not  see  a much  higher  level  of  faithfulness  to 
ideal  standards  in  political  life  than  now  exists. 
As  has  been  said,  it  so  happened  that  in  Mr 


JOHN-  QUISCY  ADAMS. 


109 


Monroe’s  administration  the  heayiest  burden  of 
labor  and  responsibility  rested  upon  Mr.  Adams; 
the  most  important  and  most  perplexing  ques- 
tions fell  within  his  department.  Domestic 
breaches  had  been  healed,  but  foreign  breaches 
gaped  with  threatening  jaws.  War  with  Spain 
seemed  imminent.  Her  South  American  col- 
onies were  then  wascingr  their  contest  for  inde- 
pendence,  and  naturally  looked  to  the  late  suc- 
cessful rebels  of  the  northern  continent  for  acts 
of  neighborly  sympathy  and  good  fellowship. 
Their  efforts  to  obtain  official  recognition  and 
the  exchange  of  ministers  with  the  United 
States  were  eager  and  persistent.  Privateers 
fitted  out  at  Baltimore  gave  the  State  Depart- 
ment scarcely  less  cause  for  anxiety  than  the 
shipbuilders  of  Liverpool  gave  to  the  English 
Cabinet  in  1863-64.  These  perplexities,  as  is 
well  known,  caused  the  passage  of  the  first 
“ Neutrality  Act,”  which  first  formulated  and 
has  since  served  to  establish  the  principle  of 
international  obligation  in  such  matters,  and 
has  been  the  basis  of  all  subsequent  legislation 
upon  the  subject  not  only  in  this  country  but 
also  in  Great  Britain. 

The  European  powers,  impelled  by  a natural 
distaste  for  rebellion  by  colonists,  and  also  be- 
lieving that  Spain  would  in  time  prevail  over 
‘he  insurgents,  turned  a deaf  ear  to  South  Amer- 


110 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ican  agents.  But  in  the  United  States  it  was 
different.  Here  it  was  anticipated  that  the  re- 
volted communities  were  destined  to  win ; Mr. 
Adams  records  this  as  liis  own  opinion ; besides 
which  there  was  also  a)  natural  sympathy  felt 
by  our  people  in  such  a conflict  in  their  own 
quarter  of  the  globe.  Nevertheless,  in  many 
anxious  cabinet  discussions,  the  President  and 
the  Secretary  of  State  established  the  policy  of 
reserve  and  caution.  Rebels  against  an  estab- 
lished government  are  like  plaintiffs  in  litiga- 
tion ; the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  them,  and 
the  neutral  nations  who  are  a sort  of  quasi- 
jurors must  not  commit  themselves  to  a deci- 
sion prematurely.  The  grave  and  inevitable 
difficulties  besetting  the  Administration  in  this 
matter  were  seriously  enhanced  by  the  conduct 
of  Mr.  Clay.  Seeking  nothing  so  eagerly  as  an 
opportunity  to  harass  the  government,  he  could 
have  found  none  more  to  his  taste  than  this 
question  of  South  American  recognition.  His 
enthusiastic  and  rhetorical  temperament  re- 
joiced in  such  a topic  for  his  luxuriant  oratory, 
and  he  lauded  freedom  and  abased  the  Admin- 
istration with  a force  of  expression  far  from 
gratifying  to  the  responsible  heads  of  govern- 
ment in  their  troublesome  task. 

Apart  from  these  matters  the  United  States 
had  direct  disputes  of  a threatening  charactex 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Ill 


pending  witli  Spain  concerning  the  boundaries 
of  Louisiana.  Naturally  enough  boundary  lines 
in  the  half  explored  wilderness  of  this  vast  con- 
tinent were  not  then  marked  with  that  indis- 
putable accuracy  which  many  generations  and 
much  bloodshed  had  achieved  in  Europe ; and 
of  all  uncertain  boundaries  that  of  Louisiana 
was  the  most  so.  Area  enough  to  make  two  or 
three  States,  more  or  less,  might  or  might  not 
be  included  therein.  Such  doubts  had  proved 
a ready  source  of  quarrel,  which  could  hardly 
be  assuaged  by  General  Jackson  marching 
about  m unquestionable  Spanish  territory,  seiz- 
ing towns  and  hanging  people  after  his  lawless, 
ignorant,  energetic  fashion.  Mr.  Adams’s  chief 
labor,  therefore,  was  by  no  means  of  a promis- 
ing character,  being  nothing  less  difficult  than 
to  conclude  a treaty  between  enraged  Spain  and 
the  rapacious  United  States,  where  there  was  so 
much  wrong  and  so  much  right  on  both  sides, 
and  such  a wide  obscure  realm  of  doubt  between 
the  two  that  an  amicable  agreement  might  well 
seem  not  onh  beyond  expectation  but  beyond 
hope. 

Many  and  various  also  were  the  incidental 
obstacles  in  Mr.  Adams’s  way.  Not  the  least 
lay  in  the  ability  of  Don  Onis,  the  Spanish 
Minister,  an  ambassador  well  selected  for  his 
important  task  and  whom  the  American  thus 
described : — 


112 


JODN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


“ Cold,  calculating,  wily,  always  commanding  his 
own  temper,  proud  because  he  is  a Spaniard,  but  sup- 
ple and  cunning,  accommodating  the  tone  of  his  pre- 
tensions precisely  to  the  degree  of  endurance  of  his 
opponent,  bold  and  overbearing  to  the  utmost  extent 
to  which  it  is  tolerated,  careless  of  what  he  asserts 
or  how  grossly  it  is  proved  to  be  unfounded,  his 
morality  appears  to  be  that  of  the  Jesuits  as  exposed 
by  Pascal.  He  is  laborious,  vigilant,  and  ever  at- 
tentive to  his  duties ; a man  of  business  and  of  the 
world.” 

Fortunately  this  so  dangerous  negotiator  was 
hardly  less  anxious  than  Mr.  Adams  to  conclude 
a treaty.  Yet  he,  too,  had  his  grave  difficulties 
to  encounter.  Spanish  arrogance  had  not  de- 
clined with  the  decline  of  Spanish  strength, 
and  the  concessions  demanded  from  that  ancient 
monarchy  by  the  upstart  republic  seemed  at 
once  exasperating  and  humiliating.  The  career 
of  Jackson  in  Florida,  Avhile  it  exposed  the 
weakness  of  Spain,  also  sorely  wounded  her 
pride.  Nor  could  the  grandees,  three  thousand 
miles  away,  form  so  accurate  an  opinion  of  the 
true  condition  and  prospects  of  affairs  as  could 
Don  Onis  upon  this  side  of  the  water.  One  day, 
begging  Mr.  Adams  to  meet  him  upon  a ques- 
tion of  boundary,  “he  insisted  much  upon  the 
infinite  pains  he  had  taken  to  prevail  upon  his 
government  to  come  to  terms  of  accommoda 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


113 


fcion,”  and  pathetically  declared  that  “ the 
King’s  Council  was  composed  of  such  ignorant 
and  stupid  nigauds,  grandees  of  Spain,  and 
priests,”  that  Mr.  Adams  “ could  have  no  con- 
ception of  their  obstinacy  and  imbecility.” 

Other  difficulties  in  J\Ir.  Adams’s  way  were 
such  as  ought  not  to  have  been  encountered. 
The  only  substantial  concession  which  he  was 
willing  to  make  was  in  accepting  the  Sabine  in- 
stead of  the  Rio  del  Norte  as  the  southwestern 
boundary  of  Louisiana.  But  no  sooner  did 
rumors  of  this  possible  yielding  get  abroad 
than  he  was  notified  that  Mr.  Clay  “would 
take  ground  against  ” any  treaty  embodying  it. 
From  iNIr.  Crawford  a more  dangerous  and  in- 
sidious policy  was  to  be  feared.  Presumably  he 
would  be  well  pleased  either  to  see  Mr.  Adams 
fail  altogether  in  the  negotiation,  or  to  see  him 
conclude  a treaty  which  would  be  in  some  es- 
sential feature  odious  to  the  people. 

“That  all  his  conduct,”  wrote  Mr.  Adams,  “is 
governed  by  his  views  to  the  Presidency,  as  the  ulti- 
mate successor  to  Mr.  Monroe,  and  that  his  hopes 
depend  upon  a result  unfavorable  to  the  success  or 
at  least  to  the  popularity  of  the  Administration,  is 
perfectly  clear.  . . . His  talent  is  .ntrigue.  And  as 
it  is  in  the  foreign  affairs  that  the  success  or  failure 
of  the  Administration  will  be  most  conspicuous,  and 
as  their  success  would  promote  the  reputation  and  in- 
8 


114 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


fluence,  and  their  failure  would  lead  to  the  disgrace 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Crawford’s  personal  views 
centre  in  the  ill-success  of  the  Administration  in  its 
foreign  relations ; and,  perhaps  unconscious  of  his 
own  motives,  he  will  always  be  impelled  to  throw 
obstacles  in  its  way,  and  to  bring  upon  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  especially  any  feeling  of  public  dissat- 
isfaction that  he  can,  . . . and  although  himself  a 
member  of  the  Administration,  he  perceives  every 
day  more  clearly  that  his  only  prospect  of  success 
hereafter  depends  upon  the  failure  of  the  Administra- 
tion by  measures  of  which  he  must  take  care  to 
make  known  his  disapprobation.” 

President  Monroe  was  profoundly  anxious  for 
the  consummation  of  the  treaty,  and  though  for 
a time  he  was  in  perfect  accord  with  Mr.  Adams, 
yet  as  the  Spanish  minister  gradually  drew 
nearer  and  nearer  to  a full  compliance  with  the 
American  demands,  Monroe  began  to  fear  that 
the  Secretary  would  carry  his  unyielding  habit 
too  far,  and  by  insistance  upon  extreme  points 
which  might  well  enough  be  given  up,  would 
allow  the  country  to  drift  into  war. 

Fortunately,  as  it  turned  out,  Mr.  Adams  was 
not  afraid  to  take  the  whole  responsibility  of 
success  or  failure  upon  his  own  shoulders,  show- 
ing indeed  a high  and  admirable  courage  and 
constancy  amid  such  grave  perplexities,  in  which 
it  seemed  that  all  his  future  political  fortunes 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


115 


were  inyolvecl.  He  caused  tlie  proffered  media- 
tion of  Great  Britain  to  be  rejected.  He  availed 
himself  of  no  aid  save  only  the  services  of 
IMons.  de  Nenville,  the  French  ministei',  who 
took  a warm  interest  in  the  negotiation,  ex- 
postulated and  argued  constantly  with  Don 
Onis  and  sometimes  with  Mr.  Adams,  served  as 
a channel  of  communica|;ion  and  carried  mes- 
sages, propositions,  and  denials,  which  could 
better  come  filtered  through  a neutral  g-o-be- 

O O 

tween  than  pass  direct  from  principal  to  prin- 
cipal. In  fact,  Mr.  Adams  needed  no  other  kind 
of  aid  except  just  this  which  was  so  readily 
fiu’nished  by  the  civil  and  obliging  Frenchman. 
As  if  he  had  been  a mathematician  solving  a 
problem  in  dynamics,  he  seemed  to  have  meas- 
ured the  precise  line  to  which  the  severe  pres 
sure  of  Spanish  difficulties  would  compel  Don 
Onis  to  advance.  This  line  he  drew  sharplj^, 
and  taking  his  stand  upon  it  in  the  beginning 
he  made  no  important  alterations  in  it  to  the 
end.  Day  by  day  the  Spaniard  would  reluc- 
tantly approach  toward  him  at  one  point  or  an- 
other, solemnly  protesting  that  he  could  uot 
make  another  move,  by  argument  and  entreaty 
urging,  almost  imploring  Mr.  Adams  in  turn  to 
advance  and  meet  him.  But  Mr.  Adams  stood 
rigidly  stiU,  sometimes  not  a little  vexed  by  the 
otlier’s  lingering  manoeuvres,  and  actually  once 


IIG 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Baying  to  tlie  coui’tly  Spaniard  tliat  he  “ was 
BO  wearied  out  with  the  discussion  that  it  had 
become  nauseous;*’  and,  again,  that  he  “really 
could  discuss  no  longer,  and  had  given  it  up  in 
despair.”  Yet  all  the  while  he  was  never  wholly 
free  from  anxiety  concerning  the  accuracy  of 
his  calculations  as  to  how  soon  the  Don  might 
on  his  side  also  come  to  a final  stand.  Many  a 
tedious  and  alarming  pause  there  was,  but  after 
each  halt  progress  was  in  time  renewed.  At 
last  the  consummation  was  reached,  and  except 
in  the  aforementioned  matter  of  the  Sabine 
boundary  no  concession  even  in  details  had  been 
made  by  Mr.  Adams.  The  United  States  was 
to  receive  Florida,  and  in  return  only  agreed  to 
settle  the  disputed  claims  of  certain  of  her  cit- 
izens against  Spain  to  an  amount  not  to  exceed 
five  million  dollars  ; while  the  claims  of  Spanish 
subjects  against  the  United  States  were  wholly 
expunged.  The  western  boundary  was  so  es- 
tablished as  to  secure  for  this  country  the  much- 
coveted  outlet  to  the  shores  of  the  “ South  Sea,” 
as  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  called,  south  of  the 
Columbia  River ; the  line  also  was  run  along  the 
southern  banks  of  the  Red  and  Arkansas  rivers, 
leaving  all  the  islands  to  the  United  States  and 
precluding  Spain  from  the  right  of  navigation. 
Mr.  Adams  had  achieved  a great  triumph. 

On  February  22,  1819,  the  two  negotiators 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


117 


signed  and  sealed  tlie  counterparts  of  the  treaty. 
Mr.  Adams  notes  that  it  is  “ perhaps  the  most 
important  day  of  my  life,”  and  justly  called  it 
“ a great  epoch  in  our  history.”  Yet  on  the  next 
day  the  Washington  City  Gazette  came  out 
vrith  a strong  condemnation  of  the  Sabine  con- 
cession, and  expressed  the  hope  that  the  Senate 
would  not  agree  to  it.  “ This  paragraph,”  said 
Mr.  Adams,  “ comes  directly  or  indirectly  from 
Mr.  Clay.”  But  the  paragraph  did  no  harm, 
for  on  the  following  day  the  treaty  was  con- 
firmed by  an  unanimous  vote  of  the  Senate. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the  pleasure 
justly  derivable  from  the  completion  of  this 
great  labor  was  cruelly  dashed.  It  appeared 
that  certain  enormous  grants  of  land,  made  by 
the  Spanish  king  to  three  of  his  nobles,  and 
which  were  supposed  to  be  annulled  by  the 
treaty,  so  that  the  territory  covered  by  them 
would  become  the  public  property  of  the  United 
States,  bore  date  earlier  than  had  been  under- 
stood, and  for  this  reason  would,  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty,  be  left  in  full  force.  This  was  a 
serious  matter,  and  such  steps  as  were  still  pos- 
sible to  set  it  right  were  promptly  taken.  Mr. 
Adams  appealed  to  Don  Onis  to  state  in  wilting 
that  he  himself  had  understood  that  these  grants 
were  to  be  annulled,  and  that  such  had  been  the 
intention  of  the  treaty  The  Spaniard  replied 


118 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


in  a shape  imperfectly  satisfactory.  He  shut 
fled,  evaded,  and  laid  himself  open  to  suspicion 
of  unfair  dealing,  though  the  charge  could  not 
be  regarded  as  fully  proved  against  him.  Mr. 
Adams,  while  blaming  himself  for  carelessness 
in  not  having  more  closely  examined  original 
documents,  yet  felt  “ scarce  a doubt  ” that 
Onis  “did  intend  by  artifice  to  cover  the  grants 
while  we  were  under  the  undoubting  impres- 
sion they  were  annulled;  ” and  he  said  to  M.  de 
Neuville,  concerning  this  dark  transaction,  that 
“it  was  not  the  ingenious  device  of  a public 
minister,  but  '■  une fourherie  de  Scapin''"  Be- 
fore long  the  rumor  got  abroad  in  the  public 
prints  in  the  natural  shape  of  a “ malignant 
distortion,”  and  Mr.  Adams  was  compelled  to 
see  with  chagrin  his  supposed  brilliant  success 
threatening  to  turn  actually  to  his  grave  dis- 
credit by  reason  of  this  unfortunate  oversight. 

What  might  have  been  the  result  had  the 
treaty  been  ratified  by  Spain  can  only  be  sur- 
mised. But  it  so  befell  — happily  enough  for 
the  United  States  and  for  hlr.  Adams,  as  it  aft- 
erwards turned  out  — that  the  Spanish  govern- 
.'jent  refused  to  ratify.  The  news  was,  how- 
ever, that  they  would  forthwith  dispatch  a new 
minister  to  explain  this  refusal  and  to  renew 
negotiations. 

For  his  own  private  part  Mr.  Adams  strove 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


119 


CO  endure  tliis  buffet  of  unkindly  fortune  with 
that  unflinching  and  stubborn  temper,  slightly 
dashed  with  bitterness,  which  stood  him  in  good 
stead  in  many  a political  trial  during  his  hard- 
fighting  career.  But  in  his  official  capacity  he 
had  also  to  consider  and  advise  what  it  be- 
hooved the  Administration  to  do  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  feeling  was  widespread  that 
the  United  States  ought  to  possess  Florida,  and 
that  Spain  had  paltered  with  us  long  enough. 
IMore  than  once  in  cabinet  meetings  during  the 
negotiation  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  was  al- 
ways prone  to  strong  measures,  had  expressed 
a wish  for  an  act  of  Congress  authorizing  the 
Executive  to  take  forcible  possession  of  Florida 
and  of  Galveston  in  the  event  of  Spain  refusing 
to  satisfy  the  reasonable  demands  made  upon 
her.  Now,  stimulated  by  indignant  feeling,  his 
prepossession  in  favor  of  vigorous  action  was 
greatly  strengthened,  and  his  counsel  was  that 
the  United  States  should  prepare  at  once  to 
take  and  hold  the  disputed  territory,  and  indeed 
tome  undisputed  Spanish  territory  also.  But 
Mr.  Monroe  and  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet  pre- 
ferred a milder  course  ; and  France  and  Great 
Britain  ventured  to  express  to  this  country  a 
hope  that  no  violent  action  would  be  precipi- 
tately taken.  So  the  matter  lay  by  for  a while, 
awaiting  the  coming  of  the  promised  envoy 
from  Spain. 


120 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMo. 


At  this  time  the  great  question  of  the  admis- 
sion of  Missouri  into  the  Union  of  States  be- 
gan to  agitate  Congress  and  the  nation.  Mr, 
Adams,  deeply  absorbed  in  the  perplexing  af- 
fairs of  his  department,  into  which  this  domestic 
problem  did  not  enter,  was  at  first  careless  of  it. 
Ilis  ideas  concerning  the  matter,  he  wrote,  wei’e 
“a  chaos;”  but  it  was  a “chaos”  into  which 
his  interest  in  public  questions  soon  compelled 
him  to  bring  order.  In  so  doing  he  for  the  first 
time  fairly  exposes  his  intense  repulsion  for 
slavery,  his  full  appreciation  of  the  irrepres- 
sible character  of  the  conflict  between  the  slave 
and  the  free  populations,  and  the  sure  tendency 
of  that  conflict  to  a dissolution  of  the  Union. 
Few  men  at  that  day  read  the  future  so  clearly. 
While  dissolution  was  generally  regarded  as  a 
threat  not  really  intended  to  be  carried  out,  and 
compromises  were  supposed  to  be  amjfiy  suffi- 
cient to  control  the  successive  emergencies,  the 
underlying  moi'al  force  of  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment acting  against  the  encroaching  necessities 
of  the  slave-holding  communities  constituted  an 
element  and  involved  possibilities  which  Mr. 
Adams,  from  his  position  of  observation  outside 
the  immediate  controversy,  noted  with  foresee- 
ing accuracy.  He  discerned  in  passing  events 
the  “ title-page  to  a great  tragic  volume  ; ” and 
he  predicted  that  the  more  or  less  distant  but 


JOHN  Qunxcr  adams. 


121 


sure  eud  must  be  an  attempt  to  dissolve  the 
Union.  His  own  position  was  distinctly  defined 
from  the  outset,  and  his  strong  feelings  were 
vigorously  expressed.  He  beheld  with  profound 
regret  the  superiority  of  the  slave-holding  party 
in  ability ; he  remarked  sadly  how  greatly  they 
excelled  in  debating  power  their  lukewarm  op- 
ponents ; he  was  filled  with  indignation  against 
the  Northern  men  of  Southern  principles.  “Sla- 
very,” he  wrote,  “is  the  great  and  foul  stain 
upon  the  North  American  Union,  and  it  is  a 
contemplation  worthy  of  the  most  exalted  soul 
whether  its  total  abolition  is  or  is  not  practica- 
ble.” “ A life  devoted  to”  the  emancipation 
problem  “ would  be  nobly  spent  or  sacrificed.” 
He  talks  with  much  acerbity  of  expression  about 
the  “ slave-drivers,”  and  the  “ flagrant  image  of 
human  inconsistency  ” presented  by  men  who 
had  “the  Declaration  of  Independence  on  their 
lips  and  the  mei’ciless  scourge  of  slavery  in  their 
hands.”  “Never,”  he  says,  “since  human  sen- 
timents and  human  conduct  were  influenced  by 
human  speech  was  there  a theme  for  eloquence 
like  the  free  side  of  this  question.  . . . Oh,  if 
but  one  man  could  arise  with  a genius  capable 
of  comprehending,  and  an  utterance  capable  of 
communicating  those  eternal  truths  that  belong 
to  this  question,  to  lay  bare  in  all  its  nakedjiess 
that  outrage  upon  the  goodness  of  God,  human 


122 


JOHN  QUINCY  Ah  AMS. 


slavery ; now  is  the  time  and  this  is  the  occa* 
bion,  upon  which  such  a man  would  perform  the 
duties  of  an  angel  upon  earth.”  Before  the 
Abolitionists  had  begun  to  preach  their  great 
crusade  this  was  strong  and  ardent  language  for 
a statesman’s  pen.  Nor  were  these  exceptional 
passages  ; there  is  much  more  of  the  same  sort 
at  least  equally  forcible.  Mr.  Adams  notes  an 
interesting  remark  made  to  him  by  Calhoun  at 
this  time.  The  great  Southern  chief,  less  pre- 
scient than  Mr.  Adams,  declared  that  he  did 
not  think  that  the  slavery  question  “ would  pro- 
duce a dissolution  of  the  Union  ; but  if  it  should, 
the  South  would  be  from  necessity  compelled  to 
form  an  alliance  offensive -and  defensive  with 
Great  Britain.” 

Concerning  a suggestion  that  civil  war  might 
be  preferable  to  the  extension  of  slavery  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  Adams  said:  “This  is  a ques- 
tion between  the  rights  of  human  nature  and 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,”  — a 
form  of  stating  the  case  which  leaves  no  doubt 
concerning  his  ideas  of  the  intrinsic  right  and 
wrong  in  the  matter.  His  own  notion  was  that 
slavery  could  not  be  got  rid  of  within  the 
Union,  but  that  the  only  method  would  be  dis- 
solution, after  which  he  trusted  that  the  course 
of  events  would  in  time  surely  lead  to  reorgan- 
ization upon  the  basis  of  universal  freedom  foi 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


123 


a11.  He  was  not  a disunionist  in  any  sense,  yet 
it  is  evident  that  his  strong  tendency  and  in- 
clination were  to  regard  emancipation  as  a 
weight  in  the  scales  heavier  than  union,  if  it 
should  ever  come  to  the  point  of  an  option  be- 
tween the  two. 

Strangely  enough  the  notion  of  a forcible  re- 
tention of  the  slave  States  within  the  Union 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  at  this  time  a sub- 
stantial element  of  consideration.  Mr.  Adams 
acknowledged  that  there  was  no  way  at  once  of 
preserving  the  Union  and  escaping  from  the 
present  emergency  save  through  the  door  of 
compromise.  He  maintained  strenuously  the 
power  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
Territories,  and  denied  that  either  Congress  or 
a state  government  could  establish  slavery  as  a 
new  institution  in  any  State  in  which  it  was  not 
already  existing  and  recognized  by  law. 

This  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  made 
Itself  felt  in  a way  personally  interesting  to  Mr. 
Adams,  by  the  influence  it  was  exerting  upon 
men’s  feelings  concerning  the  still  pending  and 
dubious  treaty  with  Spain.  The  South  became 
anxious  to  lay  hands  upon  the  Floridas  and  upon 
as  far-reaching  an  area  as  possible  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Mexico,  in  order  to  carve  it  up  into 
more  slave  States ; the  North,  on  the  other  hand, 
no  longer  cared  very  eagerly  for  an  extension  of 


124 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  Union  upon  its  southern  side.  Sectional  in- 
terests were  getting  to  be  more  considered  than 
national.  Mr.  Adams  could  not  but  recognize 
that  in  the  great  race  for  the  Presidency,  in 
which  he  could  hardly  help  being  a competitor, 
the  chief  advantage  which  he  seemed  to  have 
won  when  the  Senate  unanimously  ratified  the 
Spanish  treaty,  had  almost  wholly  vanished 
since  that  treaty  had  been  repudiated  by  Spain 
and  was  now  no  longer  desired  by  a large  pro- 
portion of  his  own  countrymen. 

Matters  stood  thus  when  the  new  Spanish 
envoy,  Vives,  arrived.  Other  elements,  which 
there  is  not  space  to  enumerate  here,  besides 
those  referred  to,  now  entering  newly  into  the 
state  of  affairs,  further  reduced  the  improba- 
bility of  agreement  almost  to  hopelessness.  Mr. 
Adams,  despairing  of  any  other  solution  than 
a forcible  seizure  of  Florida,  to  which  he  had 
long  been  far  from  averse,  now  visibly  relaxed 
his  efforts  to  meet  the  Spanish  negotiator.  Per- 
haps no  other  course  could  have  been  more 
effectual  in  securing  success  than  this  obvious 
indifference  to  it.  In  the  prevalent  condition 
of  public  feeling  and  of  his  own  sentiments  Mr. 
Adams  easily  assumed  towards  General  Vives  a 
decisive  bluntness,  not  altogether  consonant  to 
the  habits  of  diplomacy,  and  manifested  an  nn 
changeable  stubbornness  which  left  no  room  foj 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


125 


discussion.  His  position  was  simply  that  Spain 
might  make  such  a treaty  as  the  United  States 
demanded,  or  might  take  the  consequences  of 
her  refusal.  His  dogged  will  wore  out  the 
Spaniard's  pride,  and  after  a fruitless  delay  the 
King  and  Cortes  ratified  the  treaty  in  its  orig- 
inal shape,  with  the  important  addition  of  an 
explicit  annulment  of  the  land  grants.  It  was 
again  sent  in  to  the  Senate,  and  in  spite  of  the 
“ continued,  systematic,  and  laborious  effort  ” of 
“ Mr.  Clay  and  his  partisans  to  make  it  unpop- 
ular,” it  was  ratified  by  a handsome  majority, 
there  being  against  it  “ only  four  votes  — Brown 
of  Louisiana,  who  mai’ried  a sister  of  Clay's 
wife;  Richard  M.  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  against 
his  own  better  judgment,  from  mere  political 
subserviency  to  Clay ; Williams  of  Tennessee 
from  party  impulses  connected  with  hatred  of 
General  Jackson ; and  Trimble  of  Ohio,  from 
some  maggot  of  the  brain.”  Two  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  former  ratification,  and  no 
little  patience  had  been  required  to  await  so 
long  the  final  achievement  of  a success  so  ar- 
dently longed  for,  once  apparently  gained,  and 
anon  so  cruelly  thwarted.  But  the  triumph  was 
rather  enhanced  than  diminished  by  all  this  dif- 
ficulty and  delay.  A long  and  checkered  his- 
tory, wherein  appeared  infinite  labor,  many  a 
severe  trial  of  temper  and  hard  test  of  moral 


126 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


courage,  bitter  disappointment,  ignoble  artifices 
of  opponents,  ungenerous  opposition  growing 
out  of  unwortby  personal  motives  at  home,  was 
now  at  last  closed  by  a chapter  which  appeared 
only  the  more  gratifying  by  contrast  with  what 
had  gone  before.  Mr.  Adams  recorded,  with 
less  of  exultation  than  might  have  been  pardon- 
able, the  utter  discomfiture  of  “all  the  calcula- 
tors of  my  downfall  by  the  Spanish  negotiation,” 
and  reflected  cheerfully  that  he  had  been  left 
with  “ credit  rather  augmented  than  impaired 
by  the  result,”  — credit  not  in  excess  of  his  de- 
serts. Many  years  afterwards,  in  changed  cir- 
cumstances, an  outcry  was  raised  against  the 
agreement  which  was  arrived  at  concerning  the 
southwestern  boundary  of  Louisiana.  IMost 
unjustly  it  was  declared  that  Mr.  Adams  had 
sacrificed  a portion  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  But  political  motives  were  too  plainly 
to  be  discerned  in  these  tardy  criticisms ; and 
though  General  Jackson  saw  fit,  for  personal 
reasons,  to  animadvert  severely  upon  the  clause 
establishing  this  boundary  line,  yet  there  was 
abundant  evidence  to  show  not  only  that  he, 
like  almost  everybody  else,  had  been  greatly 
pleased  with  it  at  the  time,  but  even  that  he 
bad  then  upon  consultation  expressed  a deliber 
lite  and  special  approval. 

The  same  day,  February  22,  1821,  closed 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


127 


says  Mr.  Adams,  “ two  of  tlie  most  memorable 
transactions  of  my  life.”  That  be  should  speak 
thus  of  the  exchange  of  ratifications  of  the 
Spanish  treaty  is  natural ; but  the  other  so 
“memorable  transaction”  may  not  appear  of 
equal  magnitude.  It  was  the  sending  in  to  Con- 
gress of  his  report  upon  weights  and  measures. 
This  was  one  of  those  vast  labors,  involving 
tenfold  more  toil  than  all  the  negotiations  with 
Onis  and  Vives,  but  bringing  no  proportionate 
fame,  however  well  it  might  be  performed.  The 
subject  was  one  which  had  “ occupied  for  the 
last  sixty  years  many  of  the  ablest  men  in 
Europe,  and  to  which  all  the  power  and  all  the 
philosophical  and  mathematical  learning  and  in- 
genuity of  France  and  of  Great  Britain”  had 
during  that  period  been  incessantly  directed. 
It  was  fairly  enough  described  as  a “fearful  and 
oppressive  task.”  Upon  its  dry  and  uncongen- 
ial difficulties  Mr.  Adams  had  been  employed 
with  his  wonted  industry  for  upwards  of  four 
years;  he  now  spoke  of  the  result  modestly  as 
“ a hurried  and  imperfect  work.”  But  others, 
who  have  had  to  deal  with  the  subject,  have 
found  this  report  a solid  and  magnificent  mon- 
ument of  research  and  reflection,  which  has  not 
even  yet  been  superseded  by  later  treatises.  Mr. 
A-dams  was  honest  in  labor  as  in  everything, 
and  was  never  careless  at  points  where  inac- 


128 


JOHN  QUIKCY  ADA^rs. 


curacy  or  lack  of  tborouglmess  might  be  ex- 
pected to  escape  detection.  Hence  his  success 
in  a task  upon  which  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
other  statesmen  of  that  day  — Clay,  Webster, 
or  Calhoun,  for  example  — so  much  as  making 
an  effort.  The  topic  is  not  one  concerning 
which  readers  would  tolerate  much  lingering. 
Suffice  it  then  to  say  that  the  document  illus- 
trated the  ability  and  the  character  of  the  man, 
and  so  with  this  brief  mention  to  dismiss  in  a 
paragraph  an  achievement  which,  had  it  been 
accomplished  in  any  more  showy  department, 
would  alone  have  rendered  Mr.  Adams  famous. 

It  is  highly  gratifying  now  to  look  back  upon 
the  high  spirit  and  independent  temper  uni- 
formly displayed  by  Mr.  Adams  abroad  and  at 
home  in  all  dealings  with  foreign  powers.  Never 
in  any  instance  did  he  display  the  least  tinge 
of  that  rodomontade  and  boastful  extravagance 
which  have  given  an  underbred  air  to  so  many 
of  our  diplomats,  and  which  inevitably  cause  the 
basis  for  such  self-laudation  to  appear  of  dubious 
sufficiency.  But  he  had  the  happy  gift  of  a na- 
tive pride  which  enabled  him  to  support  in  the 
most  effective  manner  the  dignity  of  the  people 
for  whom  he  spoke.  For  example,  in  treaties  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  European  powers 
the  latter  were  for  a time  wont  to  name  them- 
telves  first  throughout  the  instruments,  contrai'; 


JOES  QUISCY  ADAMS. 


129 


to  the  custom  of  alternation  practised  in  trea- 
ties between  tberaselves.  With  some  difficulty, 
partly  interposed,  it  must  be  confessed,  by  bis 
own  American  coadjutors,  Mr.  Adams  succeeded 
in  putting  a stop  to  this  usage.  It  was  a matter 
of  insignificant  detail,  in  one  point  of  view;  but 
in  diplomacy  insignificant  details  often  sym- 
bolize important  facts,  and  there  is  no  question 
that  this  habit  had  been  construed  as  a tacit 
but  intentional  arrogance  of  superiority  on  the 
part  of  the  Europeans. 

For  a long  period  after  the  birth  of  the 
country  there  was  a strong  tendencjq  not  yet 
so  eradicated  as  to  be  altogether  undiscovera- 
ble,  on  the  part  of  American  statesmen  to  keep 
one  eye  turned  covertly  askance  upon  the  trans- 
Atlantic  courts,  and  to  consider,  not  without  a 
certain  anxious  deference,  what  appearance  the 
new  United  States  might  be  presenting  to  the 
critical  eyes  of  foreign  countries  and  diplomats. 
j\Ir.  Adams  was  never  guilty  of  such  indirect 
admissions  of  an  inferiority  which  apparently 
he  never  felt.  In  the  matter  of  the  acquisition 
of  Florida,  Crawford  suggested  that  England 
and  France  regarded  the  people  of  the  United 
States  as  ambitious  and  encroaching;  where- 
fore he  advised  a moderate  policy  in  order  to 
remove  this  impression.  Mr.  Adams  on  the 
ether  side  declared  that  he  was  not  in  favoi 
0 


130 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


of  our  giving  ourselves  any  concern  whatever 
about  the  opinions  of  any  foreign  power.  “ If 
the  world  do  not  hold  us  for  Romans,”  he  said, 
“ they  will  take  us  for  Jews,  and  of  the  two 
vices  I would  rather  be  charged  with  that 
which  has  greatness  mingled  in  its  composi- 
tion.” His  views  were  broad  and  grand.  He 
was  quite  ready  to  have  the  world  become 
“ familiarized  with  the  idea  of  considering  our 
proper  dominion  to  be  the  continent  of  North 
America.”  This  extension  he  declared  to  be  a 
“ law  of  nature.”  To  suppose  that  Spain  and 
England  could,  through  the  long  lapse  of  time, 
retain  their  possessions  on  this  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, seemed  to  him  a “ physical,  moral,  and 
political  absurdity.” 

The  doctrine  which  has  been  christened  with 
the  name  of  President  Monroe,  seems  likely  to 
win  for  him  the  permanent  glory  of  having 
originated  the  wise  policy  which  that  familiar 
phrase  now  signifies.  It  might,  however,  be 
shown  that  by  right  of  true  paternity  the  bant- 
ling should  have  borne  a different  patronymic. 
Not  only  is  the  “ Monroe  Doctrine,”  as  that 
phrase  is  customarily  construed  in  our  day, 
much  more  comprehensive  than  the  simple  the- 
ory first  expressed  by  Monroe  and  now  included 
in  the  modern  doctrine  as  a part  in  the  whole 
but  a principle  more  fully  identical  with  th« 


jonx  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


131 


imperial  one  of  to-day  had  been  conceived  and 
Bhaped  by  Mr.  Adams  before  the  delivery  of 
Monroe’s  famous  message.  As  has  just  been 
remarked,  he  looked  forward  to  the  possession 
of  the  vs  hole  North  American  continent  by  the 
United  States  as  a sure  destiny,  and  for  his  own 
part,  whenever  opportunity  offered,  he  was 
never  bactward  to  promote  this  glorious  ulti- 
mate consummation.  He  was  in  favor  of  the 
acquisition  of  Louisiana,  whatever  fault  he 
might  find  with  the  scheme  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
for  making  it  a State  ; he  was  ready  in  1815 
to  ask  the  British  plenipotentiaries  to  cede 
Canada  simply  as  a matter  of  common  sense 
and  mutual  convenience,  and  as  the  comforta- 
ble result  of  a war  in  which  the  United  States 
had  been  worsted  ; he  never  labored  harder 
than  in  negotiating  for  the  Floridas,  and  iir 
pushing  our  western  boundaries  to  the  Pacific  ; 
in  April,  1823,  he  Avrote  to  the  American  min- 
ister at  IMadrid  the  significant  remark:  “It  is 
scarcely  possible  to  resist  the  conviction  that 
the  annexation  of  Cuba  to  our  Federal  Republic 
will  be  indispensable  to  the  continuance  and 
integrity  of  the  Union.”  Encroachments  never 
E -emed  distasteful  to  him,  and  he  was  always 
forward  to  stretch  a point  in  order  to  advo- 
cate or  defend  a seizure  of  disputed  North 
A.merican  territory,  as  in  the  cases  of  Amelia 


132 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Island,  Pensacola,  and  Galveston.  When  dis 
cussion  arose  with  Russia  concerning  her  posses- 
sions on  the  northwest  coast  of  this  continent, 
hlr.  Adams  audaciously  told  the  Russian  min- 
ister, Baron  Tuyl,  July  17,  1823,  “ that  we 
should  contest  the  rights  of  Russia  to  any  terri- 
torial establishment  on  this  continent,  and  that 
we  should  assume  distinctly  the  principle  that 
the  American  continents  are  no  longer  subjects 
for  any  new  European  colonial  establishments.” 
“This,”  says  Mr.  Charles  Fi'ancis  Adams  in  a 
foot-note  to  the  passage  in  the  Diary,  “is  the 
first  hint  of  the  policy  so  well  known  afterwards 
as  the  Monroe  Doctrine.”  Nearly  five  months 
later,  referring  to  the  same  matter  in  his  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  December  2,  1823,  President 
Monroe  said:  “The  occasion  has  been  judged 
proper  for  asserting,  as  a principle  in  which  the 
rights  and  interests  of  the  United  States  are  in- 
volved, that  the  American  continents,  by  the 
free  and  independent  condition  which  they  have 
assumed  and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not  to  be 
considered  as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by 
any  European  powers.” 

It  will  be  observed  that  both  Mr.  Adams  and 
President  Monroe  used  the  phrase  “continents,” 
including  thereby  South  as  well  as  North 
America.  A momentous  question  was  immi 
iient,  which  fortunately  never  called  for  a deter 


Jonx  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


133 


mination  by  action,  but  whicla  in  this  latter 
part  of  1823  tlireatened  to  do  so  at  any  moment. 
Cautious  and  moderate  as  the  United  States 
had  been,  under  Mr.  Adams’s  guidance,  in  recog- 
nizing the  freedom  and  autonomy  of  the  South 
American  states,  yet  in  time  the  recognition 
was  made  of  one  after  another,  and  the  emanci- 
pation of  South  America  had  come,  while  Mr. 
Adams  was  yet  Secretary,  to  be  regarded  as  an 
established  fact.  But  now,  in  1823-24,  came 
mutterinp's  from  across  the  Atlantic  indicating 

O O 

a strong  probability  that  the  members  of  the 
Holy  Alliance  would  interfere  in  behalf  of  mo- 
narchical and  anti-revolutionary  principles,  and 
would  assist  in  the  re-subjugation  of  the  suc- 
cessful insurgents.  That  each  one  of  the  pow- 
ers who  should  contribute  to  this  huge  crusade 
would  expect  and  receive  territorial  reward, 
could  not  be  doubted.  Mr.  Adams,  in  unison 
with  most  of  his  countrymen,  contemplated  with 
profound  distrust  and  repulsion  the  possibility 
of  such  an  European  inroad.  Stimulated  by 
the  prospect  of  so  unwelcome  neighbors,  he 
prepared  some  dispatches,  “ drawn  to  corre- 
spond exactly”  with  the  sentiments  of  IMr. 
Monroe’s  message,  in  which  he  appears  to  have 
taken  a veiy  high  and  defiant  position.  These 
documents,  coming  before  the  Cabinet  for  con- 
sideration, caused  some  flutter  among  his  asso- 


134 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


dates.  In  the  possible  event  of  tlie  Holy  Alli 
ance  actually  intermeddling  in  South  American 
affairs,  it  was  said,  the  jminciples  enunciated  by 
the  Secretary  of  State  would  involve  this  coun- 
try in  war  with  a very  formidable  confedera- 
tion. Mr.  Adams  acknowledged  this,  but  cour- 
ageously declared  that  in  such  a crisis  he  felt 
quite  ready  to  take  even  this  spirited  stand. 
His  audacious  spirit  went  far  in  advance  of  the 
cautious  temper  of  the  jMonroe  Administration  ; 
possibly  it  went  too  far  in  advance  of  the  dic- 
tates of  a wise  prudence,  though  fortunately 
the  course  of  events  never  brought  this  ques- 
tion to  trial ; and  it  is  at  least  gratifying  to 
contemplate  such  a manifestation  of  daring  tem- 
per. 

But  though  so  bold  and  independent,  Mr. 
Adams  was  not  habitually  reckless  nor  prone 
to  excite  animosity  by  needless  arrogance  in  ac- 
tion or  extravagance  in  principle.  In  any  less 
perilous  extremity  than  Avas  presented  by  this 
menaced  intrusion  of  combined  Europe  he  fol- 
lowed rigidly  the  wise  rule  of  non-intei’ference. 
For  many  years  before  this  stage  was  reached, 
he  had  been  holding  in  difficult  check  the 
enthusiasts  who,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Clay, 
would  have  embroiled  us  with  Spain  and  Poi’- 
tugal.  Once  he  was  made  the  recipient  of  a 
fery  amusing  proposition  from  the  Portuguese 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


136 


minister,  that  the  United  States  and  Portugal, 
as  “ the  two  great  powers  of  the  western 
hemisphere,”  should  concert  together  a grand 
American  system.  The  drollery  of  this  notion 
was  of  a kind  that  Mr.  Adams  could  appreci- 
ate, though  to  most  manifestations  of  humor  he 
was  utterly  impervious.  But  after  giving  vent 
to  some  contemptuous  merriment  he  adds,  with 
a just  and  serious  pride  : “ As  to  an  American 
system,  we  have  it ; we  constitute  the  whole  of 
it ; there  is  no  community  of  interests  or  of 
principles  between  North  and  South  America.” 
This  sound  doctrine  was  put  forth  in  1820  ; 
and  it  was  only  modified  in  the  manner  that 
we  have  seen  during  a brief  period  in  1823,  in 
face  of  the  alai’ming  vision  not  only  of  Spain 
and  Portugal  restored  to  authority,  but  of  Rus- 
sia in  possession  of  California  and  more,  France 
in  possession  of  Mexico,  and  perhaps  Great 
Britain  becoming  mistress  of  Cuba. 

So  far  as  European  affairs  were  concerned, 
Mr.  Adams  always  and  consistently  refused  to 
become  entangled  in  them,  even  in  the  slight 
est  and  most  indirect  manner.  When  the  cause 
of  Greek  liberty  aroused  the  usual  throng  of 
. noisy  advocates  for  active  interference,  he  con- 
tented himself  with  expressions  of  cordial  sjun- 
pathy,  accompanied  by  perfectly  distinct  and 
explicit  statements  that  under  no  circumstances 


136 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


could  any  aid  in  tlie  way  of  money  or  auxiliary 
forces  be  expected  from  this  country.  Neutrals 
we  were  and  would  remain  in  any  and  all 
European  quarrels.  When  Stratford  Canning 
urged,  with  the  uttermost  measure  of  persis- 
tence of  which  even  he  was  capable,  that  for 
the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  some  such  ar- 
rangement might  be  made  as  that  of  mixed  tri- 
bunals for  the  trial  of  slave-trading  vessels,  and 
alleged  that  divers  European  powers  were  unit- 
ing for  this  purpose,  Mr.  Adams  suggested,  as 
an  insuperable  obstacle,  “ the  general  extra-Eu- 
ropean policy  of  the  United  States — a pol- 
icy which  they  had  always  pursued  as  best 
suited  to  their  own  interests,  and  best  adapted 
to  harmonize  with  those  of  Europe.  This  pol- 
icy had  also  been  that  of  Europe,  which  had 
never  considered  the  United  States  as  belong- 
ing to  her  system.  ...  It  was  best  for  both 
parties  that  they  should  continue  to  do  so.”  In 
any  European  combinations,  said  Mr.  Adams, 
in  which  the  United  States  should  become  a 
member,  she  must  soon  become  an  important 
power,  and  must  always  be,  in  many  respects, 
an  uncongenial  one.  It  was  best  that  she 
should  keep  wholly  out  of  European  politics, 
even  of  such  leagues  as  one  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the*  slave  trade.  He  added,  that  he  did 
cot  wish  his  language  to  be  construed  as  im 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


137 


porting  “ an  unsocial  and  sulky  spirit  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States ; ” for  no  such  tem- 
per existed ; it  had  simply  been  the  policy  of 
Europe  to  consider  this  country  as  standing 
aloof  from  all  European  federations,  and  in  this 
treatment  “ we  had  acquiesced,  because  it  fell 
in  with  our  own  policy.” 

In  a word,  Mr.  Adams,  by  his  language  and 
actions,  established  and  developed  precisely  that 
doctrine  which  has  since  been  ado^Dted  by  this 
country  under  the  doubly  incorrect  name  of  the 
“ Monroe  Doctrine,”  — a name  doubly  incor- 
rect, because  even  the  real  “ Monroe  Doctrine  ” 
was  not  an  original  idea  of  Mr.  Monroe,  and 
because  the  doctrine  which  now  goes  by  that 
name  is  not  identical  with  the  doctrine  which 
Monroe  did  once  declare.  Mr.  Adams’s  princi- 
ple was  simply  that  the  United  States  would 
take  no  part  whatsoever  in  foreign  politics,  not 
even  in  those  of  South  America,  save  in  the  ex- 
treme event,  elmrinated  from  among  things  pos- 
sible in  this  generation,  of  such  an  interference 
as  was  contemplated  by  the  Holy  Alliance ; and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  she  would  permit  no 
European  power  to  gain  any  new  foothold  upon 
this  continent.  Time  and  experience  have  not 
enabled  us  to  improve  upon  the  principles 
which  jMr.  Adams  worked  out  for  us. 

Mr.  Adams  had  some  pretty  stormy  times 


138 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


mth  Mr.  Stratford  Canning  — the  same  gentle- 
man who  in  his  later  life  is  familiar  to  the  read- 
ers of  Kinglake’s  History  of  the  Crimean  War 
as  Lord  Stratford  de  Reddy ffe,  or  Eltchi.  That 
minister’s  overbearing  and  dictatorial  deport- 
ment was  afterwards  not  out  of  place  when  he 
was  representing  the  protecting  power  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  court  of  the  “sick  man.”  But 
when  he  began  to  display  his  arrogance  in  the 
face  of  Mr.  Adams  he  found  that  he  was  beard- 
ing one  who  was  at  least  his  equal  in  pride  and 
temper.  The  nai've  surprise  which  he  man- 
ifested on  making  this  discovery  is  very  amus- 
ing, and  the  accounts  of  the  interviews  between 
the  two  are  among  the  most  pleasing  episodes  in 
the  history  of  our  foreign  relations.  Nor  are 
they  less  interesting  as  a sort  of  confidential 
peep  at  the  asperities  of  diplomacy.  It  appears 
that  besides  the  composed  and  formal  dignity  of 
phrase  which  alone  the  public  knows  in  published 
state  papers  and  official  correspondence,  there  is 
also  an  official  language  of  wrath  and  retort  not 
at  all  artificial  or  stilted,  but  quite  homelike 
and  human  in  its  sound. 

One  subject  much  discussed  between  Mr. 
Adams  and  Mr.  Canning  related  to  the  Eng- 
lish propositions  for  joint  efforts  to  suppress 
the  slave  trade.  Great  Britain  had  engaged 
with  much  vigor  and  certainly  with  an  admir 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


139 


able  humanity  in  this  cause.  Her  scheme  was 
til  at  each  power  should  keep  armed  cruisers  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  that  the  war-ships  of  either 
nation  might  seai'ch  the  merchant  vessels  of  the 
other,  and  that  mixed  courts  of  joint  commis- 
sioners should  try  all  cases  of  capture.  This 
plan  had  been  urged  upon  the  several  Euro- 
pean nations,  but  with  imperfect  success.  Por- 
tugal, Spain,  and  the  Netherlands  had  assented 
to  it ; Russia,  France,  Austria,  and  Prussia 
had  rejected  it.  Mi’.  Adams’s  notion  was  that 
the  ministry  were,  in  their  secret  hearts,  rather 
lukewarm  in  the  business,  but  that  they  were 
so  pressed  by  “ the  party  of  the  saints  in  Par- 
liament ” that  they  were  obliged  to  make  a 
parade  of  zeal.  Whether  this  suspicion  was 
correct  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  Mr.  Stratford 
Canning  was  very  persistent  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  his  demands,  and  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  take  No  for  an  answer.  Had  it  been  pos- 
sible to  give  any  more  favorable  reply  no  one 
in  the  United  States  in  that  day  would  have 
been  better  pleased  than  Mr.  Adams  to  do  so. 
But  the  obstacles  were  insupei’able.  Besides 
the  undesirability  of  departing  from  the  “ex- 
tra-European policy,”  the  mixed  courts  would 
have  been  unconstitutional,  and  could  not  have 
been  established  even  by  act  of  Congress, 
while  the  claims  advanced  by  Great  Britain  tc 


140 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


search  our  ships  for  English-born  seamen  in 
time  of  war,  utterly  precluded  the  possibility 
of  admitting  any  rights  of  search  whatsoever 
upon  her  part  even  in  time  of  peace  for  any 
purpose  or  in  any  shape.  In  vain  did  the  Eng- 
lishman  reiterate  his  appeal.  Mr.  Adams  as 
often  explained  that  the  insistence  of  England 
upon  her  outrageous  claim  had  rendered  the 
United  States  so  sensitive  upon  the  entire  sub- 
ject of  search  that  no  description  of  right  of 
that  kind  could  ever  be  tolerated.  “ All  con- 
cession of  principle,”  he  said,  “tended  to  en- 
courage encroachment,  and  if  naval  officers 
were  once  habituated  to  search  the  vessels  of 
other  nations  in  time  of  peace  for  one  thing, 
they  would  be  still  more  encourag'ed  to  practise 
it  for  another  thing  in  time  of  war.”  The  only 
way  for  Great  Britain  to  achieve  her  purpose 
would  be  “ to  bind  herself  by  an  article,  as 
strong  and  explicit  as  language  can  make  it, 
never  again  in  time  of  war  to  take  a man  from 
an  American  vessel.”  This  of  course  was  an 
inadmissible  proposition,  and  so  Mr.  Stratford 
Canning’s  incessant  urgency  produced  no  sub- 
stantial results.  This  discussion,  however,  was 
generally  harmonious.  Once  only,  in  its  earlier 
stages,  Mr.  Adams  notes  a remark  of  Mr.  Can 
ning,  repeated  for  the  second  time,  and  not  alto- 
gether gratifying.  He  said,  writes  Mr.  Adama 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


141 


'*  that  he  should  always  receive  any  observa- 
tions that  I may  make  to  him  with  a just  defer- 
ence to  my  advance  of  years  — over  him.  This 
is  one  of  those  equivocal  compliments  which, 
according  to  Sterne,  a Frenchman  always  re- 
turns with  a bow.” 

It  was  when  they  got  upon  the  matter  of  the 
American  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  Co- 
lumbia River,  that  the  two  struck  fire.  Posses- 
sion of  this  disputed  spot  had  been  taken  by 
the  Americans,  but  was  broken  up  by  the  Brit- 
ish during  the  war  of  1812.  After  the  declara- 
tion of  peace  upon  the  status  ante  helium.,  a 
British  government  vessel  had  been  dispatched 
upon  the  special  errand  of  making  formal  re- 
turn of  the  port  to  the  Americans.  In  .lanuaiy, 
1821,  certain  remarks  made  in  debate  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  followed  soon  after- 
ward by  publication  in  the  National  Intelli- 
gencer of  a paper  signed  by  Senator  Eaton,  led 
Mr.  Canning  to  think  that  the  Government  en- 
tertained the  design  of  establishing  a substan- 
tial settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  On 
January  26  he  called  upon  Mi’.  Adams  and 
inquired  the  intentions  of  the  Administration 
in  regard  to  this.  Mr.  Adams  replied  that  an 
increase  of  the  present  settlement  was  not  im- 
probable. Thereupon  Mr.  Canning,  dropping 
the  air  of  “ easy  familiarity  ” which  had  previ- 


142 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ously  marked  the  intercourse  between  the  two, 
and  “ assuming  a tone  more  peremptory  ” than 
Mr.  Adams  “ was  disposed  to  endure,”  ex- 
pressed his  great  surprise.  Mr.  Adams  “ with 
a corresponding  change  of  tone  ” expressed 
equal  surprise,  “ both  at  the  form  and  sub- 
stance of  his  address.”  Mr.  Canning  said  that 
“he  conceived  such  a settlement  would  be  a 
direct  violation  of  the  article  of  the  Convention 
of  20th  October,  1818.”  Mr.  Adams  took  down 
a volume,  read  the  article,  and  said,  “ Now,  sir, 
if  you  have  any  chai’ge  to  make  against  the 
American  Government  for  a violation  of  this 
article,  you  will  please  to  make  the  communica- 
tion in  writing.”  hlr.  Canning  retorted,  with 
great  vehemence : — 

“ ‘ And  do  you  suppose,  sir,  that  I am  to  be  dictated 
to  as  to  the  manner  in  which  I may  think  proper  to 
communicate  with  the  American  Government?’  I 
answered,  ‘ No,  sir.  We  know  very  well  what  are  the 
privileges  of  foreign  ministers,  and  mean  to  respect 

them. *  But  you  will  give  us  leave  to  determine  what 
communications  we  will  receive,  and  how  we  will  re- 
ceive them ; and  you  may  he  assured  we  are  as  little 
disposed  to  submit  to  dictation  as  to  exercise  it.’  lie 

then,  in  a louder  and  more  passionate  tone  of  voice, 

said : ‘ And  am  I to  understand  that  I am  to  be  re- 
fused henceforth  any  conference  with  you  upon  thi 
subject  of  my  mission  ? ’ ‘ Not  at  all,  sir,’  said  I 


JO  UN  QUINCY  AD  Ails. 


143 


my  request  is,  that  if  you  have  anything  fur;her  to 
lay  to  me  upon  this  subject,  you  would  say  it  in  writ- 
ing. And  my  motive  is  to  avoid  what,  both  from  the 
nature  of  the  subject  and  from  the  manner  in  which 
you  have  thought  proper  to  open  it,  I foresee  will 
tend  only  to  mutual  irritation,  and  not  to  an  amicable 
arrangement.’  With  some  abatement  of  tone,  hut  in 
the  same  peremptory  manner,  he  said,  ‘ Am  I to  un- 
derstand that  you  refuse  any  further  conference  with 
me  on  this  subject?’  I said,  ‘No.  But  you  will  un- 
derstand that  I am  not  pleased  either  with  the  grounds 
upon  which  you  have  sought  this  conference,  nor  with 
the  questions  which  you  have  seen  fit  to  put  to  me.’  ” 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  to  expose  the 
impropriety  of  a foreign  minister  demanding 
from  the  Administration  an  explanation  of 
words  uttered  in  debate  in  Congress,  and  also 
said  that  he  supposed  that  the  British  had  no 
claim  to  the  territory  in  question.  J\lr.  Can- 
ning rejoined,  and  referred  to  the  sending  out 
of  the  American  ship  of  war  Ontario,  in  1817, 
without  any  notice  to  the  British  minister  ^ at 
Washington,  — 

“speaking  in  a very  emphatic  manner  and  as  if 
Lhere  had  been  an  intended  secret  expedition  . . 
which  had  been  detected  only  by  the  vigilance  and 
penetration  of  the  British  minister.  I answered, 
Why,  Mr.  Bagot  did  say  something  to  me  about  it ; 

1 Then  Mr.  Bagot. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Ii4 

but  I certainly  did  not  think  him  serious,  and  we  had 
a good-humored  laughing  conversation  on  the  occa- 
sion.’ Canning,  with  great  vehemence : ‘ You  may 
rely  upon  it,  sir,  that  it  wms  no  laughing  matter  to 
him ; for  I have  seen  his  report  to  his  government 
and  know  what  his  feelinofs  concerning  it  were.’  T 

O O 

replied,  ‘ This  is  the  first  intimation  I have  ever  re- 
ceived that  Mr.  Basrot  took  the  slightest  offence  at 
what  then  passed  between  us,  . . . and  you  will  give 
me  leave  to  say  that  when  he  left  this  country  — 
Here  I was  going  to  add  that  the  last  words  he  said 
to  me  were  words  of  thanks  for  the  invariable  urban- 
ity and  liberality  of  my  conduct  and  the  personal  kind- 
ness which  he  had  uniformly  received  from  me.  But 
I could  not  finish  the  sentence.  Mr.  Canning,  in  a par- 
oxysm of  extreme  irritation,  broke  out : ‘ I stop  you 
there.  I will  not  endure  a misrepresentation  of  what 
I say.  I never  said  that  Mr.  Bagot  took  offence  at 
anything  that  had  passed  between  him  and  you  ; and 
nothing  that  I said  imported  any  such  thing.’  Then 
. . added  in  the  same  passionate  manner:  ‘lam 
treated  like  a school-boy.’  I then  resumed : ‘ Mr. 
Canning,  I have  a distinct  recollection  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  short  conversation  between  Mr.  Bagot 
and  me  at  that  time  ; and  it  was  this  — ’ ‘ No  doubt, 
sir,’  said  Canning,  interrupting  me  again,  ‘ no  doubt, 
sir,  Mr.  Bagot  answered  you  like  a man  of  good 
breeding  and  good  humor.’  ” 

Mr.  Adams  began  again  and  succeeded  in 
making,  without  further  interruption,  a carefu. 


JOUX  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


145 


recital  of  lais  talk  with  Mr.  Bagot.  While  he 
was  speaking  Mr.  Canning  grew  cooler,  and  ex- 
pressed some  surprise  at  what  he  heard.  But  in 
a few  moments  the  conversation  again  became 
warm  and  personal,  hlr.  Adams  remarked  that 
heretofore  he  had  thrown  off  some  of  the  “cau- 
tious reserve  ” which  might  have  been  “ strictly 
regular”  between  them,  and  that 

“‘so  long  as  his  (Canning’s)  professions  had  beep 
supported  by  his  conduct  ’ — Here  Mr.  Canning 
again  stopped  me  by  repeating  with  great  vehemence, 
‘ My  conduct ! I am  responsible  for  my  conduct  only 
to  my  government ! ’ ” 

j\Ir.  Adams  replied,  substantially,  that  he 
could  respect  the  rights  of  Mr.  Canning  and 
maintain  his  own,  and  that  he  thought  the  best 
mode  of  treating  this  topic  in  future  would  be 
by  writing.  IMr.  Canning  then  expressed  him- 
self as 

“ ‘ willing  to  forget  all  that  had  now  passed.’  I 
told  him  that  I neither  asked  nor  promised  him  to 
forget.  . . . He  asked  again  if  he  was  to  understand 
me  as  refusing  to  confer  with  him  further  on  the 
subject.  I said,  ‘ No.’  ‘ Would  I appoint  a time  for 
that  purpose  ? ’ I said,  ‘ Now,  if  he  pleased.  . . . 
But  as  he  appeared  to  be  under  some  excitement, 
perhaps  he  might  prefer  some  otuer  time,  in  which 
ease  I would  readily  receive  him  to-morrow  at  one 
o’clock  ; ’ upon  which  he  rose  and  took  leave,  saying 
he  would  come  at  that  time.” 

10 


146 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


The  next  day,  accordingly,  this  genial  pair 
again  encountered.  Mr.  Adams  noted  at  first 
in  Mr.  Canning’s  manner  “ an  effort  at  coolness, 
but  no  appearance  of  cheerfulness  or  good 
humor.  I saw  there  was  no  relaxation  of  the 
tone  he  had  yesterday  assumed,  and  felt  that 
none  would  on  my  part  be  suitable.”  They 
went  over  quietly  enough  some  of  the  ground 
traversed  the  day  before,  Mr.  Adams  again  ex- 
plaining the  impropriety  of  Mr.  Canning  ques- 
tioning him  concerning  remarks  made  in  de- 
bate  in  Congress.  It  was,  he  said,  as  if  Mr. 
Rush,  hearing  in  the  House  of  Commons  some- 
thing said  about  sending  troops  to  the  Shet- 
land Islands,  should  proceed  to  question  Lord 
Castlereagh  about  it. 

“ ‘ Have  you,’  said  Mr.  Canning,  ‘ any  claim  to  the 
Shetland  Islands  ? ’ ‘ Have  you  any  claim,'  said  I,  ‘ to 
the  mouth  of  Columbia  River  ? ’ ‘ Why,  do  you  not 

\mow,'  replied  lie,  ‘ that  we  have  a claim  ? ’ ‘ I do  not 
know,’  said  I,  ‘ what  you  claim  nor  what  you  do  not 
claim.  You  claim  India;  you  claim  Africa;  you 
claim’ — ‘Perhaps,’  said  he,  ‘a  piece  of  the  moon!’ 
‘ No,’  said  I,  ‘ I have  not  heard  that  you  claim  exclu 
sively  any  part  of  the  moon  ; but  there  is  not  a spot 
on  this  habitable  globe  that  I could  affirm  vou  do  not 
claim ! ’ ” 

The  conversation  continued  with  alternations  of 
lull  and  storm,  Mr.  Canning  at  times  becoming 


JOim  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


147 


<varin  and  incensed  and  interrupting  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, who  retorted  with  a dogged  asperity  which 
must  have  been  extremely  irritating.  Mr.  Ad- 
ams said  that  he  did  “ not  expect  to  be  plied 
with  captious  questions  ” to  obtain  indirectly 
that  which  had  been  directly  denied.  Mr.  Can- 
ning, “ exceedingly  irritated,”  complained  of 
the  word  “captious.”  ]\Ir.  Adams  retaliated 
by  reciting  offensive  language  used  by  ]\Ir. 
Canning,  who  in  turn  replied  that  he  had  been 
speaking  only  in  self-defence.  ]\Ir.  Canning 
found  occasion  to  make  again  his  peculiarly 
rasping  remark  that  he  should  always  strive 
to  show  towards  Mr.  Adams  the  deference  due 
to  his  “ more  advanced  years.”  After  another 
very  uncomfortable  passage,  Mr.  Adams  said 
that  the  behavior  of  J\Ir.  Canning  in  making 
the  observations  of  members  of  Congress  a basis 
of  official  interrogations  was  a pretension  the 
more  necessai’y  to  be  resisted  because  this 

“ ‘ was  not  the  first  time  it  had  been  raised  by  a 
British  minister  here.’  lie  asked,  with  great  emo- 
tion, who  that  minister  was.  I answered,  ‘ Mr.  Jack- 
son.’  ‘ And  you  got  rid  of  him ! ’ said  Mr.  Canning, 
in  a tone  of  violent  passion  — ‘ and  you  got  rid  of 
him ! — and  you  got  rid  of  him  ! ’ This  repetition  of 
the  sa.ue  words,  always  in  the  same  tone,  was  with 
pauses  of  a few  seconds  between  each  of  them,  as  if 
tor  a reply.  I said : ‘Sir,  my  reference  to  the  pre- 


148 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


tension  of  Mr.  Jackson  was  not’ — Here  Mr. 
Canning  interrupted  me  by  saying:  ‘If  you  think 
tliat  by  reference  to  Mr.  Jackson  I am  to  be  intimi- 
dated from  the  performance  of  my  duty  you  will  find 
yourself  greatly  mistaken.’  ‘ I bad  not,  sir,’  said  T, 
‘ the  most  distant  intention  of  intimidating  you  from 
the  performance  of  your  duty ; nor  was  it  with  the 
intention  of  alluding  to  any  subsequent  occurrences 
of  his  mission;  but’ — Mr.  Canning  interrupted 
me  again  by  saying,  still  in  a tone  of  high  exaspera- 
tion, — ‘ Let  me  tell  you,  sir,  that  your  reference 
to  the  case  of  Mr.  Jackson  is  exceedingly  offensive.’ 
‘ I do  not  know,’  said  I,  ‘ whether  I shall  be  able  to 
finish  what  I intended  to  say,  under  such  continual 
interruptions.’  ” 

Mr.  Canning  thereupon  intimated  by  a bow  his 
willingness  to  listen,  and  Mr.  Adams  reiterated 
what  in  a more  fragmentary  way  he  had  already 
said.  Mr.  Canning  then  made  a formal  speech, 
mentioning  his  desire  “ to  cultivate  harmony 
and  smooth  down  all  remnants  of  asjierity  be- 
tween the  two  countries,”  again  gracefully  re- 
ferred to  the  deference  which  he  should  at  all 
times  pay  to  j\Ir.  Adams’s  age,  and  closed  by 
declaring,  with  a significant  emphasis,  that  he 
would  “never  forget  the  respect  due  from  him 
fo  t/ie  American  Government.”  Mr.  Adams 
bowed  in  silence  and  the  stormy  interview 
ended.  A day  or  two  afterward  the  disputants 
met  by  accident,  and  Mr.  Canning  showed  such 


JOllX  aUISCY  ADAMS.  149 

signs  of  resentment  that  there  passed  between 
them  a “bare  salutation.” 

In  the  condition  of  our  relations  with  Great 
Britain  at  the  time  of  these  interviews  any 
needless  ill-feeling  was  strongly  to  be  depre- 
cated. But  Mr.  Adams’s  temperament  was 
such  that  he  always  saw  the  greater  chance  of 
success  in  strong  and  spirited  conduct ; nor 
could  he  endure  that  the  dignity  of  the  Repub- 
lic, any  more  than  its  safety,  should  take  detri- 
ment in  his  hands.  Moreover  he  understood 
Englishmen  better  perhaps  than  they  have 
ever  been  understood  by  any  other  of  the  iDub- 
lic  men  of  the  United  States,  and  he  handled 
and  subdued  them  with  a temper  and  skill 
highly  agreeable  to  contemplate.  The  Pres- 
ident supported  him  fully  throughout  the  mat- 
ter, and  the  discomfiture  and  wrath  of  Mr. 
Canning  never  became  even  indirectly  a cause 
of  regret  to  the  country. 

As  the  years  allotted  to  IMonroe  passed  on, 
the  manoeuvring  among  the  candidates  for  the 
succession  to  the  Presidency  grew  in  activity. 
Tliere  were  several  possible  presidents  in  the 
field,  and  during  the  “era  of  good  feeling” 
many  an  aspiring  politician  had  his  brief  period 
of  mild  expectancy  followed  in  most  cases  only 
too  surely  by  a hopeless  relegation  to  obscurity. 
There  were,  however,  four  whose  anticipationa 


150 


JOim  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


rested  upon  a substantial  basis,  William  H. 
Crawford,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  been 
the  rival  of  Monroe  for  nomination  by  the  Con- 
gressional caucus,  and  had  then  developed  suf- 
ficient strength  to  make  him  justly  sanguine 
that  he  might  stand  next  to  Monroe  in  the  suc- 
cession as  he  apparently  did  in  the  esteem  of 
their  common  party.  ]\Ir.  Clay,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  had  such  expecta- 
tions as  might  fairly  grow  out  of  his  brilliant 
reputation,  pow’erful  influence  in  Congress,  and 
great  personal  popularity.  Mr.  Adams  was 
pointed  out  not  only  by  his  deserts  but  also  by 
his  position  in  the  Cabinet,  it  having  been  the 
custom  heretofore  to  promote  the  Secretary  of 
State  to  the  Presidency.  It  -was  not  until  the 
time  of  election  was  near  at  hand  that  the 
strength  of  General  Jackson,  founded  of  course 
upon  the  effect  of  his  military  prestige  upon 
the  masses  of  the  people,  began  to  appear  to  the 
other  competitors  a formidable  element  in  the 
great  rivalry.  For  a while  Mr.  Calhoun  might 
have  been  regarded  as  a fifth,  since  he  had  al- 
ready become  the  great  chief  of  the  South  ; but 
this  cause  of  his  strength  was  likewise  his  weak- 
ness, since  it  was  felt  that  the  North  was  fairly 
entitled  to  present  the  next  candidate.  The 
others,  who  at  one  time  and  another  had  aspi 
rations,  like  De  Witt  Clinton  and  Tompkins 


JOnN  Q.UINCY  ADAMS. 


151 


were  never  really  formidable,  and  may  be  dis* 
regarded  as  insignificant  threads  in  the  complex 
political  snarl  which  must  be  unravelled. 

As  a study  of  the  dark  side  of  political 
society  during  this  period  ]\Ir.  Adams’s  Diary 
is  profoundly  interesting.  He  writes  with  a 
charming  absence  of  reserve.  If  he  thinks 
there  is  rascality  at  work,  he  sets  down  the 
names  of  the  knaves  and  expounds  their  various 
villainies  of  act  and  motive  with  delightfully 
outspoken  frankness.  All  his  life  he  was  some- 
what prone,  it  must  be  confessed,  to  depreciate 
the  moral  characters  of  others,  and  to  suspect 
unworthy  designs  in  the  methods  or  ends  of  those 
who  crossed  his  path.  It  was  the  not  unnatural 
result  of  his  own  rigid  resolve  to  be  honest. 
Refraining  with  the  stern  conscientiousness, 
which  was  in  the  composition  of  his  Puritan 
blood,  from  every  act,  whether  in  public  or  in 
private  life,  which  seemed  to  him  in  the  least 
degree  tinged  with  immorality,  he  found  a sort 
of  compensation  for  the  restraints  and  discom- 
forts of  his  own  austerity  in  judging  severely  the 
less  punctilious  world  around  him.  Whatever 
other  faults  he  had,  it  is  unquestionable  that 
bis  uprightness  was  as  consistent  and  unvarying 
as  can  be  reached  by  human  nature.  Yet  his 
temptations  were  made  the  greater  and  the 
more  cruel  by  the  beliefs  constantly  borne  in 


162 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


npon  him  that  his  rivals  did  not  accept  for  their 
own  governance  in  the  contest  the  same  rules 
by  which  he  was  pledged  to  himself  to  abide. 
Jealousy  enhanced  suspicion,  and  suspicion  in 
turn  pricked  jealousy.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  be  somewhat  upon  our  guard  in  accept- 
ing his  estimates  of  men  and  acts  at  this  period  ; 
though  the  broad  general  impression  to  be  gath- 
ered from  his  treatment  of  his  rivals,  even  in 
these  confidential  pages,  is  favorable  at  least  to 
his  justice  of  disposition  and  honesty  of  inten- 
tion. 

At  the  outset  Mr.  Clay  excited  Mr.  Adams’s 
most  lively  resentment.  The  policy  which 
seemed  most  promising  to  that  gentleman  lay  in 
antagonism  to  the  Administration,  whereas,  in 
the  absence  of  substantial  party  issues,  there 
seemed,  at  least  to  members  of  that  Administra- 
tion, to  be  no  proper  grounds  for  such  antago- 
nism. When,  therefore,  Mr.  Clay  found  or  de- 
vised such  grounds,  the  President  and  his 
Cabinet,  vexed  and  harassed  by  the  opposition 
of  so  influential  a man,  not  unnaturally  attrib- 
uted his  tactics  to  selfish  and,  in  a political  sense, 
cori’upt  motives.  Thus  Mr.  Adams  stigmatized 
his  opposition  to  the  Florida  treaty  as  prompted 
by  no  just  objection  to  its  stipulations,  but  by  a 
malicious  wish  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  nego 
tiator.  Probably  the  charge  was  true,  and  Mr 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


153 


Clay’s  honesty  in  opposing  an  admirable  treaty 
can  only  be  vindicated  at  the  expense  of  his  un- 
derstanding, — an  explanation  certainly  not  to 
be  accepted.  But  when  Mr.  Adams  attributed 
to  the  same  motive  of  embarrassing  the  Admin- 
istration i\Ir.  Clay’s  energetic  endeavors  to  force 
a recognition  of  the  insurgent  states  of  South 
America,  he  exaggerated  the  inimical  element 
in  his  rival’s  motives.  It  was  the  business  of 
the  President  and  Cabinet,  and  pi’eeminentl}' 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  to  see  to  it  that  the 
country  should  not  move  too  fast  in  this  very 
nice  and  perilous  matter  of  recognizing  the  in- 
dependence of  rebels.  Mr.  Adams  was  the  re- 
sponsible minister,  and  had  to  hold  the  reins ; 
Mr.  Clay,  outside  the  official  vehicle,  cracked 
the  lash  probably  a little  more  loudly  than  he 
would  have  done  had  he  been  on  the  coach-box. 
It  may  be  assumed  that  in  advocating  his  vari- 
ous motions  looking  to  the  appointment  of  min- 
isters to  the  new  states  and  to  other  acts  of 
recognition,  he  felt  his  eloquence  rather  fired 
than  dampened  by  the  thought  of  how  much 
trouble  he  was  making  for  Mr.  Adams ; but  that 
he  was  at  the  same  time  espousing  the  cause  to 
which  he  sincerely  wished  well  is  probably  true. 
His  ardent  temper  was  stirred  by  this  strug- 
gle for  independence,  and  his  I'hetorical  nature 
tould  not  resist  the  opportunities  for  fervid  and 


154 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Drilliaiifc  oratory  presented  by  this  straggle  for 
freedom  against  mediaeval  despotism.  Real  con- 
victions were  sometimes  diluted  with  rodomon- 
tade, and  a true  feeling  was  to  some  extent  stim- 
ulated by  the  desire  to  embarrass  a rival. 

Entire  freedom  from  prejudice  would  have 
been  too  much  to  expec*^  from  I\Ir.  Adams  ; but 
bis  criticisms  of  Clay  are  seldom  marked  by  any 
serious  accusations  or  really  bitter  explosions  of 
ill-temper.  Early  in  his  term  of  office  he  writes 
that  Mr.  Clay  has  “already  mounted  his  South 
American  great  horse,”  and  that  his  “project 
is  that  in  which  John  Randolph  failed,  to  con 
trol  or  overthrow  the  Executive  by  swaying  the 
House  of  Representatives.”  Again  he  says  that 
“Clay  is  as  rancorously  benevolent  as  John 
Randolph.”  The  sting  of  these  remarks  lay 
rather  in  the  comparison  with  Randolph  than 
in  their  direct  allegations.  In  January,  1819, 
Adams  notes  that  Clay  has  “ redoubled  his  ran- 
cor against  me,”  and  gives  himself  “free  swing 
to  assault  me  . . . both  in  his  public  speeches 
and  by  secret  machinations,  without  scruple  or 
delicacju”  The  diarist  gloomily  adds,  that  “ all 
public  business  in  Congress  now  connects  itself 
with  intrigues,  and  there  is  great  danger  that 
the  whole  Government  will  degenerate  into  a 
struggle  of  cabals.”  He  was  rather  inclined  to 
such  pessimistic  vaticinations  ; but  it  must  bs 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


15u 


confessed  that  he  spoke  with  too  much  reason 
on  this  occasion.  In  the  absence  of  a sufficient 
supply  of  important  public  questions  to  absorb 
the  energies  of  the  men  in  public  life,  the  petty 
game  of  personal  politics  was  playing  with  un- 
usnal  zeal.  As  time  went  on,  however,  and  the 
South  American  questions  were  removed  from 
the  arena,  Adams’s  ill-feeling  towards  Clay  be- 
came greatly  mitigated.  Clay’s  assaults  and 
opposition  also  gradually  dwindled  away ; go- 
betweens  carried  to  and  fro  disclaimers,  made 
by  the  principals,  of  personal  ill-will  towards 
each  other;  and  before  the  time  of  election  was 
actually  imminent  something  as  near  the  en- 
tente cordiale  was  established  as  could  be  rea- 
sonably expected  to  exist  between  competitors 
very  unlike  both  in  moral  and  mental  consti- 
tution.^ 

Mr.  Adams’s  unbounded  indignation  and  pro- 
found contempt  were  reserved  for  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, partly,  it  may  be  suspected  by  the  cynic- 
ally minded,  because  Crawford  for  a long  time 
seemed  to  be  by  far  the  most  formidable  rival, 
but  partly  also  because  Crawford  was  in  fact 
unable  to  resist  the  temptation  to  use  ignoble 
means  for  attaining  an  end  which  he  coveted  too 
keenly  for  his  own  honor.  It  was  only  by  de- 

1 For  a deliberate  estimate  of  Clay's  character,  see  Mr 
A-dams’s  Diary,  v.  325. 


156 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


grees  that  Adams  began  to  suspect  the  under- 
hand methods  and  malicious  pi’actices  of  Craw- 
ford ; but  as  conviction  was  gradually  brought 
home  to  him  his  native  tendency  towards  sus- 
picion was  enhanced  to  an  extreme  degree.  He 
then  came  to  recognize  in  Crawford  a wholly 
selfish  and  scheming  politician,  who  had  the 
baseness  to  retain  his  seat  in  Mr.  Monroe’s  Cab- 
inet with  the  secret  persistent  object  of  giving 
the  most  fatal  advice  in  his  power.  From  that 
time  forth  he  saw  in  every  suggestion  made  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  only  an  insidious 
intent  to  lead  the  Administration,  and  especially 
the  Department  of  State,  into  difficulty,  failure, 
and  disi’epute.  He  notes,  evidently  with  per- 
fect belief,  that  for  this  purpose  Crawford  was 
even  covertly  busy  with  the  Spanish  ambassador 
to  jjrevent  an  accommodation  of  our  differences 
with  Spain.  “ Oh,  the  windings  of  the  human 
heart ! ” he  exclaims  ; “ possibly  Crawford  is  not 
himself  conscious  of  his  real  motives  for  this 
conduct.”  Even  the  slender  measure  of  charity 
involved  in  this  last  sentence  rapidly  evaporated 
from  the  poisoned  atmosphere  of  his  mind.  He 
mentions  that  Crawford  has  killed  a man  in  a 
duel ; that  he  leaves  unanswered  a pamphlet 
“ supported  by  documents  ” exhibiting  him  “ in 
the  most  odious  light,  as  sacrificing  every  prin- 
eiple  to  his  ambition.”  Because  Calhoun  would 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


157 


not  support  him  for  the  Presidency,  Crawford 
Btimulated  a series  of  attacks  upon  the  War  De- 
partment. He  was  the  “instigator  and  animat- 
ing spirit  of  the  whole  movement  both  in  Con- 
gress and  at  Richmond  against  Jackson  and  the 
Administration.”  He  was  “a  worm  preying 
upon  the  vitals  of  the  Administration  in  its  own 
body.”  He  “ solemnly  deposed  in  a court  of 
justice  that  which  is  not  true,”  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  discredit  upon  the  testimony  given 
by  Mr.  Adams  in  the  same  cause.  But  Mr. 
Adams  says  of  this  that  he  cannot  bring  him- 
self to  believe  that  Crawford  has  been  guilty  of 
wilful  falsehood,  though  convicted  of  inaccui’acy 
by  his  own  words;  for  “ambition  debauches 
memory  itself.”  A little  later  he  would  have 
been  less  merciful.  In  some  vexatious  and  diffi- 
cult commercial  negotiations  which  Mr.  Adams 
was  conducting  with  France,  Crawford  is  “afraid 
of  [the  result]  being  too  favorable.” 

To  form  a just  opinion  of  the  man  thus  un- 
pleasantly sketched  is  difficult.  For  nearly  eight 
years  Mr.  Adams  was  brought  into  close  and 
constant  relations  with  him,  and  as  a result 
formed  a very  low  opinion  of  his  character  and 
by  no  means  a high  estimate  of  his  abilities. 
Even  after  making  a liberal  allowance  for 
the  prejudice  naturally  supervening  from  their 
rivalry  there  is  left  a residuum  of  condemnation 


158 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


abundantly  sufficient  to  ruin  a more  vigorous 
reputation  tlian  Crawford  has  left  behind  him. 
Apparently  Mr.  Calhoun,  though  a fellow 
Southerner,  thought  no  better  of  the  ambitious 
Georgian  than  did  Mr.  Adams,  to  whom  one 
day  he  remarked  that  Crawford  was  “ a very 
singular  instance  of  a man  of  such  character 
rising  to  the  eminence  he  now  occupies  ; that 
there  has  not  been  in  the  history  of  the  Union 
another  man  with  abilities  so  ordinary,  with  ser- 
vices so  slender,  and  so  thoroughly  corrupt,  who 
had  contrived  to  make  himself  a candidate  for 
the  Presidency.”  Nor  was  this  a solitary  ex- 
pression of  the  feelings  of  the  distinguished 
South  Carolinian. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Mills,  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
and  a dispassionate  observer,  speaks  of  Craw- 
ford with  scant  favor  as  “ coarse,  rough,  uned- 
ucated, of  a pretty  strong  mind,  a great  in- 
triguer, and  determined  to  make  himself  Pres- 
ident.” He  adds : “ Adams,  Jackson,  and 
Calhoun  all  think  well  of  each  other,  and  are 
united  at  least  in  one  thing  — to  wit,  a most 
thorough  dread  and  abhorrence  of  Crawford.” 

Yet  Crawford  was  for  many  years  not  only 
never  without  eager  exjoectations  of  his  own, 
which  narrowly  missed  realization  and  might 
not  have  missed  it  had  not  his  health  broken 
down  a few  months  too  soon,  but  he  had  a larga 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


159 


following,  strong  friemls,  and  an  extensive  in- 
fluence. But  if  lie  really  had  great  ability  he 
had  not  the  good  fortune  of  an  opportunity  to 
show  it : and  he  lives  in  history  rather  as  a man 
from  whom  much  was  expected  than  as  a man 
who  achieved  much.  One  faculty,  however,  not 
of  the  best,  but  serviceable,  he  had  in  a rare  de- 
gree ; he  thoroughly  understood  all  the  artifices 
of  politics ; he  knew  how  to  interest  and  organ- 
ize partisans,  to  obtain  newspaper  support,  and 
generally  to  extend  aud  direct  his  following 
after  that  fashion  which  soon  afterward  began 
to  be  fully  developed  by  the  younger  school  of 
our  public  men.  He  was  the  avant  courier  of  a 
bad  system,  of  which  the  first  crude  manifesta- 
tions were  received  with  well-merited  disrelish 
by  the  w’orthier  among  his  contemporaries. 

It  is  the  more  easy  to  believe  that  Adams’s 
distrust  of  Crawford  was  a sincere  convic- 
tion, when  we  consider  his  behavior  towards 
another  dangerous  rival.  General  Jackson.  In 
view  of  the  new  phase  which  the  relationship 
between  these  two  men  was  soon  to  take  on, 
Adams’s  hearty  championship  of  Jackson  for 
several  years  prior  to  1825  deserves  mention. 
The  Seci’etary  stood  gallantly  by  the  General  at 
a crisis  in  Jackson’s  life  when  he  greatl}’^  needed 
Euch  strong  official  backing,  and  in  an  hour  of 
«!xtreme  need  Adams  alone  in  the  Cabinet  of 


160 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Monroe  lent  an  assistance  which  Jackson  after- 
wards too  readily  forgot.  Seldom  has  a govern- 
ment been  brought  by  the  undue  zeal  of  its  ser- 
vants into  a quandary  more  perplexing  than  that 
into  which  the  reckless  military  hero  brought  the 
Administration  of  President  Monroe.  Turned 
loose  in  the  regions  of  Florida,  checked  only  by 
an  uncertain  and  disputed  boundary  line  running 
through  half-explored  forests,  confronted  by  a 
hated  foe  whose  strength  he  could  well  afford 
to  despise,  General  Jackson,  in  a war  properly 
waged  only  against  Indians,  ran  a wild  and 
lawless,  but  very  vigorous  and  effective,  career 
in  Spanish  possessious.  He  hung  a couple  of 
British  subjects  with  as  scant  trial  and  meagre 
shrift  as  if  he  had  been  a mediceval  free-lance ; 
he  marched  upon  Spanish  towns  and  peremp- 
toiily  forced  the  blue-blooded  commanders  to 
capitulate  in  the  most  humiliating  manner ; 
afterwards,  when  the  Spanish  territory  had  be- 
come American,  in  his  civil  capacity  as  Gov- 
ernor, he  flung  the  Spanish  Commissioner  into 
jail.  He  treated  instructions,  laws,  and  estab- 
lished usages  as  teasing  cobwebs  which  any 
spirited  public  servant  was  in  duty  bound  to 
break ; then  he  quietly  stated  his  willingness  to 
let  the  country  take  the  benefit  of  his  irregular 
proceedings  and  make  him  the  scapegoat  or 
martyr  if  such  should  be  needed.  How  to  treat 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


161 


this  too  successful  chieftain  was  no  simple  prob- 
lem. He  had  done  what  he  ought  not  to  have 
done,  yet  eveiybody  in  the  country  was  heartily 
glad  that  he  had  done  it.  He  ought  not  to  have 
hung  Arbnthnot  and  Ambrister,  nor  to  have 
seized  Pensacola,  nor  later  on  to  have  impi'isoned 
Callava ; yet  the  general  efficiency  of  his  pro- 
cedure fully  accorded  with  the  secret  disposition 
of  the  country.  It  was,  however,  not  easy  to 
establish  the  propriety  of  his  trenchant  doings 
upon  any  acknowledged  principles  of  law,  and 
during  the  long  period  through  which  these  dis- 
turbing feats  extended,  Jackson  was  left  in 
painful  solitude  by  those  who  felt  obliged  to 
judge  his  actions  by  rule  rather  than  by  sym- 
pathy. The  President  was  concerned  lest  his 
Administration  should  be  brought  into  indefen- 
sible embarrassment ; Calhoun  was  personally 
displeased  because  the  instructions  issued  from 
his  department  had  been  exceeded  Crawford 
eagerly  sought  to  make  the  most  of  such  admir- 
able opportunities  for  destroying  the  prestige 
of  one  who  might  grow  into  a dangerous  rival ; 
Clay,  who  hated  a military  hero,  indulged  in  a 
series  of  fierce  denunciations  in  the  House  of 
Representatives ; Mr.  Adams  alone  stood  gal- 
lantly by'  the  man  who  had  dared  to  take  vigor- 
ous measures  upon  his  own  sole  responsibility. 
His  career  touched  a kindred  chord  in  Adams's 


ii. 


162 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


own  independent  and  courageous  character,  ana 
perhaps  for  the  only  time  in  his  life  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  became  almost  sophistical  in  the 
arguments  by  which  he  endeavored  to  sustain 
the  impetuous  warrior  against  an  adverse  Cab- 
inet. The  authority  given  to  Jackson  to  cross 
the  Spanish  frontier  in  pursuit  of  the  Indian  en- 
emy was  justified  as  being  only  defensive  war- 
fare ; then  “all  the  rest,”  argued  Adams,  “ even 
to  the  order  for  taking  the  Fort  of  Barrancas  by 
storm,  was  incidental,  deriving  its  character  from 
the  object,  which  was  not  hostility  to  Spain,  but 
the  termination  of  the  Indian  war.”  Through 
long  and  anxious  sessions  Adams  stood  fast  in 
opposing  “the  unanimous  opinions”  of  the 
President,  Crawford,  Calhoun,  and  Wirt.  Their 
policy  seemed  to  him  a little  ignoble  and  wholly 
blundering,  because,  he  said,  “it  is  weakness 
and  a confession  of  weakness.  The  disclaimer 
of  power  in  tlie  executive  is  of  dangerous  ex- 
ample and  of  evil  consequences.  There  is  in- 
justice to  the  officer  in  disavowing  him,  when  in 
principle  he  is  strictly  justifiable.”  This  be- 
havior upon  Mr.  Adams’s  part  was  the  more 
generous  and  disinterested  because  the  earlier 
among  these  doings  of  Jackson  incensed  Don 
Onis  extremely  and  were  near  bringing  about 
the  entire  disruption  of  that  important  negotia- 
tion with  Spain  upon  which  Mr.  Adams  had  sc 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


163 


of  jh  at  stake.  But  few  civilians  have  had  a 
stronger  dash  of  the  fighting  element  than  had 
IMr.  Adams,  and  this  impelled  him  irresistibly 
to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  Jackson  in 
such  an  emergency,  regardless  of  possible  con- 
sequences to  himself.  He  preferred  to  insist 
that  the  hansrin"  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister 
was  according  to  the  laws  of  war  and  to  main- 
tain that  position  in  the  teeth  of  Stratford 
Canning  rather  than  to  disavow  it  and  render 
apology  and  reparation.  So  three  years  later 
when  Jackson  was  again  in  trouble  by  reason  of 
his  arrest  of  Callava,  he  still  found  a staunch 
advocate  in  Adams,  who,  having  made  an  argu- 
ment for  the  defence  which  would  have  done 
credit  to  a subtle-minded  barrister,  concluded 
by  adopting  the  sentiment  of  Hume  concerning 
the  execution  of  Don  Pantaleon  de  Sa  by  Oliver 
Cromwell, — if  the  laws  of  nations  had  been 
violated,  “it  was  by  a signal  act  of  justice  de- 
servmg  universal  approbation.”  Later  still,  on 
January  8,  1824,  being  the  anniversary  of  the 
victory  of  New  Orleans,  as  if  to  make  a con- 
spicuous declaration  of  his  opinions  in  favor  of 
Jackson,  IMr.  Adams  gave  a great  ball  in  his 
honor,  “ at  which  about  cue  thousand  persons 
attended.”  ^ 

^ Senator  Mills  says  of  this  g''and  ball : “ Eight  large 
'ooms  were  open  and  literally  filled  to  overflowing.  There 


1G4 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


He  was  in  favor  of  offering  to  the  Geneq 
the  position  of  minister  to  Mexico ; and  before 
Jackson  had  developed  into  a rival  of  himself 
for  the  Presidency,  he  exerted  himself  to  secure 
the  Vice-Presidency  for  him.  Thus  by  argu- 
ment and  by  influence  in  the  Cabinet,  in  many 
n private  interview,  and  in  the  world  of  society, 
also  b}"  wise  counsel  when  occasion  offered,  Mr. 
Adams  for  many  years  made  himself  the  note- 
worthy and  indeed  the  only  powerful  friend  of 
General  Jackson.  Nor  up  to  tlie  last  moment, 
and  when  Jackson  had  become  his  most  danger- 
ous competitor,  is  there  any  derogatory  passage 
concerning  him  in  the  Diary. 

As  the  period  of  election  drew  nigh,  interest 
in  it  absorbed  everytliing  else;  indeed  during 
the  last  year  of  Monroe’s  Administration  public 
affairs  were  so  quiescent  and  the  public  business 
so  seldom  transcended  the  simplest  routine,  that 
there  was  little  else  than  the  next  Presidency  to 
be  thought  or  talked  of.  The  rivalship  for  this, 
as  has  beeir  said,  was  based  not  upon  conflict- 
ing theories  concerning  public  affairs,  but  solely 
upon  individual  preference  for  one  or  another 

must  have  been  at  least  a thousand  people  there  ; and  so  far 
ns  !Mr.  Adams  was  concerned  it  certainly  evinced  a great  deal 
of  taste,  elegance,  and  good  sense.  . . . IMany  stayed  till  twelve 
and  one.  ...  It  is  the  universal  opinion  that  nothing  has  evet 
equalled  this  party  here  either  in  brilliancy  of  preparation  oi 
elegance  of  the  company.” 


JOHN  QUIXCT  ADAilS. 


1G5 


Df  four  men  no  one  of  whom  at  that  moment 
represented  any  great  principle  in  antagonism 
to  any  of  the  others.  Under  no  circumstances 
could  the  temptation  to  petty  intrigue  and  mali- 
cious tale-bearing  he  greater  than  when  Totes 
were  to  be  gained  or  lost  solely  by  personal  pre- 
dilection. In  such  a contest  Adams  was  severely 
handicapped  as  against  the  showy  prestige  of 
the  victorious  soldier,  the  popularity  of  the 
brilliant  orator,  and  the  artfulness  of  the  most 
dexterous  political  manager  then  in  public  life. 
Long  prior  to  this  stage  Adams  had  established 
his  rule  of  conduct  in  the  campaign.  So  early  as 
jMarch,  1818,  he  was  asked  one  day  by  IMr.  Ev- 
erett whether  he  was  “ determined  to  do  noth- 
ing with  a view  to  promote  his  future  election  to 
the  Presidency  as  the  successor  of  i\Ir.  Monroe,” 
and  he  had  replied  that  he  “ should  do  abso- 
lutely nothing.”  To  this  resolution  he  sturdily 
adhered.  Not  a breach  of  it  was  ever  brought 
home  to  him,  or  indeed  — save  in  one  instance 
soon  to  be  noticed — seriously  charged  against 
him.  There  is  not  in  the  Diary  the  faintest 
trace  of  any  act  which  might  be  so  much  as 
.questionable  or  susceptible  of  defence  only  by 
casuistiy.  That  he  should  have  perpetuated 
evidence  of  any  'iagrant  misdoing  certainly 
could  not  be  expected  ; but  in  a record  kept 
vith  the  fulness  and  frankness  of  this  Diary  we 


1G6 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


should  read  between  the  lines  and  detect  as  it 
were  in  its  general  flavor,  any  taint  of  disingen- 
uousness or  concealment ; we  should  discern 
moral  unwholesomeness  in  its  atmosphere.  A 
thoughtless  sentence  would  slip  from  the  pen, 
a sophistical  argument  would  be  formulated 
for  self-comfoi't,  some  acquaintance,  interview, 
or  arrangement  would  slide  upon  some  un- 
guarded page  indicative  of  undisclosed  matters. 
But  there  is  absolutely  nothing  of  this  sort. 
There  is  no  tinge  of  bad  color ; all  is  clear  as 
crystal.  Not  an  editor,  nor  a member  of  Con- 
gress, nor  a local  politician,  not  even  a private 
individual,  was  intimidated  or  conciliated.  On 
the  contrary  it  often  happened  that  those  who 
made  advances,  at  least  sometimes  stimulated 
by  honest  friendship,  got  rebuffs  instead  of 
encouragement.  Even  after  the  contest  was 
known  to  have  been  transferred  to  the  House 
of  Representatives,  when  Washington  was  act- 
ually buzzing  with  the  ceaseless  whisperings  of 
many  secret  conclaves,  when  the  air  was  thick 
with  rumors  of  what  this  one  had  said  and  that 
one  had  done,  when,  as  Webster  said,  there 
were  those  who  pretended  to  foretell  how  a rep- 
resentative would  vote  from  the  way  in  which 
he  put  on  his  hat,  when  of  course  stories  of 
intrigue  and  corniption  poisoned  the  honest 
oreeze,  and  when  the  streets  seemed  traversed 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS.  167 

Dnly  by  the  busy  tread  of  the  go-betweens,  the 
Influential  friends,  the  wire-pullers  of  the  vari- 
ous contestants,  — still  amid  all  this  noisy  ex- 
citement and  extreme  temptation  Mr.  Adams 
held  himself  almost  wholly  aloof,  wrapped  in  the 
cloak  of  his  rigid  integrity.  His  proud  honesty 
was  only  not  quite  repellent ; he  sometimes  al- 
lowed himself  to  answer  questions  courteously, 
and  for  a brief  period  held  in  check  his  strong 
natural  propensity  to  give  offence  and  make  en- 
emies. This  was  the  uttermost  length  that  he 
could  go  towards  political  corruption.  He  be- 
came for  a few  weeks  tolerably  civil  of  speech, 
which  after  all  was  much  for  him  to  do  and 
doubtless  cost  him  no  insignificant  effort.  Since 
the  days  of  Washington  he  alone  presents  the 
singular  spectacle  of  a candidate  for  the  Pres- 
idency delibei'ately  taking  the  position,  and  in 
a long  campaign  really  never  flinching  from  it : 
“that,  if  the  people  wish  me  to  be  President  I 
shall  not  refuse  the  office;  but  I ask  nothing 
from  any  man  or  from  any  body  of  men.” 

Yet  though  he  declined  to  be  a courtier  of 
popular  favor  he  did  not  conceal  from  himself 
or  from  others  the  chagrin  which  he  would  feel 
if  there  should  be  a manifestation  of  popular 
disfavor.  Before  the  popular  election  he  stated 
that  if  it  should  go  against  him  he  should  con- 
itrue  it  as  the  verdict  of  the  people  that  they 


168 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


were  dissatisfied  with  his  services  as  a public 
mail,  and  he  should  then  retire  to  private  life, 
no  longer  expecting  or  accepting  public  func- 
tions. He  did  not  regard  politics  as  a struggle 
in  which,  if  he  should  now  be  beaten  in  one  en- 
counter, he  would  return  to  another  in  the  hope 
of  better  success  in  time.  His  notion  was  that 
the  people  had  had  ample  opportunity  during 
his  incumbency  in  appointive  offices  to  measure 
his  ability  and  understand  his  character,  and 
that  the  action  of  the  people  in  electing  or  not 
electing  him  to  the  Presidency  would  be  an  in- 
dication that  they  wmre  satisfied  or  dissatisfied 
with  him.  In  the  latter  event  he  had  nothing 
more  to  seek.  Politics  did  not  constitute  a pro- 
fession or  career  in  which  he  felt  entitled  to 
persist  in  seeking  personal  success  as  he  might 
in  the  law  or  in  business.  Neither  did  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time  place  him  in  the  position 
of  an  advocate  of  any  great  principle  which  he 
might  feel  it  his  duty  to  represent  and  to  fight 
for  against  any  number  of  reverses.  No  such 
element  was  present  at  this  time  in  national  af- 
fairs. He  construed  the  question  before  the 
people  simply  as  concerning  their  opinion  of 
him.  He  was  much  too  proud  to  solicit  and 
much  too  honest  to  scheme  for  a favorable  ex- 
pression. It  was  a singular  and  a lofty  attitude, 
even  if  a trifle  egotistical  and  not  altogether 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


169 


nnimpeachable  by  argument.  It  couki  not  di- 
minish but  rather  it  intensified  his  interest  in  a 
contest  which  he  chose  to  regal’d  not  simply  as 
a struggle  for  a glittering  prize  but  as  a judg- 
ment upon  the  services  which  he  had  been  for  a 
lifetime  rendering  to  his  countrymen. 

How  profoundly  his  whole  nature  was  moved 
by  the  position  in  which  he  stood  is  evident, 
often  almost  painfully,  in  the  Diary.  Any  at- 
tempt to  conceal  his  feeling  would  be  idle,  and 
he  makes  no  such  attempt.  He  repeats  all  the 
rumors  which  come  to  his  ears ; he  tells  the 
stories  about  Crawford’s  illness ; he  records  his 
own  temptations  ; he  tries  hard  to  nerve  himself 
to  bear  defeat  philosophically  by  constantly  pre- 
dicting it;  indeed,  he  photographs  his  whole  ex- 
istence for  many  weeks ; and  however  eagerly 
any  person  may  aspire  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States  there  is  little  in  the  picture  to 
make  one  long  for  the  preliminary  position  of 
candidate  for  that  honoi’.  It  is  too  much  like 
the  stake  and  the  flames  througb  which  the 
martyr  passed  to  eternal  beatitude,  with  the 
difference  as  against  the  candidate  that  he  baa 
by  no  means  the  martyr’s  certainty  of  reward. 

In  those  days  of  slow  communication  it  was 
Vot  until  December,  1824,  that  it  became  every- 
ivhere  known  that  there  had  been  no  election  of 
) President  by  the  people.  When  the  electoral 


170 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


college  met  tlie  result  of  their  ballots  was  as 


follows : — 

General  Jackson  led  with  . . 99  votes. 

Adams  followed  with  ....  84  “ 

Crawford  had 41  “ 

Clay  had 37  “ 

Total 261  votes. 


Mr.  Calhoun  was  elected  Vice-President  by 
the  handsome  number  of  182  votes. 

This  condition  of  the  election  had  been  quite 
generally  anticipated;  yet  Mr.  Adams’s  friends 
were  not  without  some  feeling  of  disappoint- 
ment. They  had  expected  for  him  a fair  sup- 
port at  the  South,  Avhereas  he  in  fact  received 
seventy-seven  out  of  his  eighty-four  votes  from 
New  York  and  New  England  ; Maryland  gave 
him  three,  Louisiana  gave  him  two,  Delaware 
and  Illinois  gave  him  one  each. 

When  the  electoral  body  was  known  to  bo 
reduced  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  intrigue  was  rather  stim- 
ulated than  diminished  by  the  definiteness 
which  became  possible  for  it.  Mr.  Clay,  who 
could  not  come  before  the  House,  found  him- 
self transmuted  from  a candidate  to  a President- 
maker  ; for  it  was  admitted  by  all  that  his  great 
personal  influence  in  Congress  would  almost 
andoubtedly  confer  success  upon  the  aspiran 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


171 


^vhom  he  should  favor.  Apparently  his  predi- 
lections were  at  least  possibly  in  favor  of  Craw- 
ford; but  Crawford's  health  had  been  for  many 
months  very  bad  ; he  had  had  a severe  paralytic 
stroke,  and  when  acting  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  he  had  been  unable  to  sign  liis  name, 
BO  that  a stamp  or  die  had  been  used ; his 
speech  was  scarcely  intelligible ; and  when  Mr. 
Clay  visited  him  in  the  retirement  in  which  his 
friends  now  kept  him,  the  fact  could  not  be 
concealed  that  he  was  for  the  time  at  least  a 
wreck.  Mr.  Clay  therefore  had  to  decide  for 
nimself,  his  followers,  and  the  country  whether 
Mr.  Adams  or  General  Jackson  should  be  the 
next  President  of  the  United  States.  A cruel 
attempt  was  made  in  this  crisis  either  to  destroy 
his  influence  by  blackening  his  character,  or  to 
intimidate  him,  through  fear  of  losing  his  rep- 
utation for  integrity,  into  voting  for  Jackson. 
An  anonymous  letter  charged  that  the  friends 
of  Clay  had  hinted  that,  “like  the  Swiss,  they 
would  fight  for  those  who  pay  best ; ” that  they 
had  offered  to  elect  Jackson  if  he  would  agree 
to  make  Clay  Secretary  of  State,  and  that  upon 
his  indignant  refusal  to  make  such  a bargain 
file  same  proposition  had  been  made  to  Mr. 
.Vdams,  who  was  found  less  scrupulous  and  had 
promptly  formed  the  “unholy  coalition.”  This 
Vretched  publication,  made  a few  days  before 


172 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  election  in  the  House,  was  traced  to  a 
dull-witted  Pennsylvania  Representative  by  the 
name  of  Kremer,  who  had  obviously  been  used 
as  a tool  by  cleverer  men.  It  met,  however,  the 
fate  which  seems  happily  always  to  attend  such 
ignoble  devices,  and  failed  utterly  of  any  more 
important  effect  than  the  utter  annihilation  of 
Kremer.  In  truth.  General  Jackson’s  fate  had 
been  sealed  from  the  instant  when  it  had  fallen 
into  Mr.  Clay’s  hands.  Clay  had  long  since  ex- 
pressed his  unfavorable  opinion  of  the  “ military 
hero,”  in  terms  too  decisive  to  admit  of  expla- 
nation or  retraction.  -Without  much  real  liking 

O 

for  Adams,  Clay  at  least  disliked  him  much  less 
than  he  did  Jackson,  and  certainly  his  honest 
judgment  favored  the  civilian  far  more  than 
the  disorderly  soldier  whose  lawless  career  in 
Florida  had  been  the  topic  of  some  of  the 
great  orator’s  fiercest  invective.  The  arguments 
founded  on  personal  fitness  were  strongly  upon 
the  side  of  Adams,  and  other  arguments  ad- 
vanced by  the  Jacksonians  could  hardly  deceive 
Clay.  They  insisted  that  their  candidate  was 
the  choice  of  the  people  so  far  as  a superiority 
of  preference  had  been  indicated,  and  that  there- 
fore he  ought  to  be  also  the  choice  of  the  House 
Df  Representatives.  It  would  be  against  the 
Bpirit  of  the  Constitution  and  a thwarting  of 
the  popular  will,  they  said,  to  prefer  either  oi 


JOHN  aulNCT  ADAMS. 


178 


his  competitors.  The  fallacy  of  this  reasoning, 
if  reasoning  it  could  be  called,  was  glaring.  If 
the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  required  the 
House  of  Representatives  not  to  elect  from 
three  candidates  before  it,  but  only  to  induct 
an  individual  into  the  Presidency  by  a process 
which  was  in  form  voting  but  in  fact  only  a 
simple  certification  that  he  had  received  the 
highest  number  of  electoral  votes,  it  would  have 
been  a plain  and  easy  matter  for  the  letter  of 
the  Constitution  to  have  expressed  this  spirit,  or 
indeed  to  have  done  away  altogether  with  this 
machinery  of  a sham  election.  The  Jackson 
men  had  only  to  state  their  argument  in  order 
to  expose  its  hollowness ; for  they  said  substan- 
tially that  the  Constitution  established  an  elec- 
tion without  an  option ; that  the  electors  ^\'ere 
to  vote  for  a person  predestined  by  an  earlier 
occurrence  to  receive  their  ballots.  But  it  was 
not  alone  the  Jacksonian  logic  which  was  at 
fault.  The  allegations  of  fact  to  which  that 
logic  was  applied  were  almost  certainly  untrue. 
It  was  said  that  Jackson  was  the  choice  of  a 
plurality  of  the  people  because  he  had  received 
the  largest  electoral  vote.  But  the  figures  of 
the  popular  election  showed  that  Mr.  Adams 
was  a choice  of  the  plurality  of  the  people  be- 
cause the  Adams  electors  had  received  more 
votes  than  the  Jackson  electors  throughout  the 


174 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


BOiintry  at  large.  IMr.  Adams  liad  had  enor- 
mous majorities  in  New  England : General 
Jackson  had  narrowdy  carried  the  South;  the 
South  also  had  the  benefit  of  the  artificial  es- 
tima''e  based  on  its  slave  population.  If  polit- 
ical boundary  lines  were  disregarded  and  the 
counting  were  simply  of  the  number  of  persons 
throughout  the  country  who  had  voted  for  Ad- 
ams electors  and  the  number  who  had  voted  for 
Jackson  electors,  the  preponderance  of  individ- 
ual voters  was  handsomely  on  Mr.  Adams’s 
side.  This  alone  vindicated  the  constitutional 
provision,  which  left  the  House  free  to  select 
and  elect,  without  preference,  among  the  three 
names  before  it.  Otherwise,  indeed,  what  oc- 
casion was  there  for  resorting  to  the  House  at 
all  ? The  candidate  with  the  largest  electoral 
vote  might  as  well  have  been  declared  to  be 
chosen  by  the  electors  in  the  first  instance. 
Plainly  there  was  nothing  in  all  this  to  perplex 
an  intelligent  man. 

The  election  took  place  in  the  House  on  Feb- 
ruary 9, 1825.  Daniel  Webster  and  John  Ran- 
dolph were  tellers,  and  they  reported  that  there 
were  “ for  John  Quincy  Adams,  of  Massachu- 
setts, thirteen  votes  ; for  Andrew  Jackson,  of 
Tennessee,  seven  votes;  for  William  H.  Craw- 
ford, of  Georgia,  four  votes.”  Thereupon  tha 
speaker  announced  Mr.  Adams  to  have  been 
elected  President  of  the  United  States. 


JOUX  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


175 


This  end  of  an  unusually  exciting  contest 
thus  left  IMr.  Adams  in  possession  of  the  field, 
]\lr.  Crawford  the  victim  of  an  irretrievable  de- 
feat, Mr.  Clay  still  hopeful  and  asjDiring  for  a 
future  which  had  only  disappointment  in  store 
for  him,  General  Jackson  enraged  and  revenge- 
ful. Not  even  Mr.  Adams  was  fully  satisfied. 
When  the  committee  waited  upon  him  to  in- 
form hinr  of  the  election,  he  referred  in  his  re- 
ply to  the  peculiar  state  of  things  ^id  said, 
“ could  my  refusal  to  accept  the  trust  thus  del- 
egated to  me  give  an  opportunity  to  the  people 
• to  form  and  to  express  with  a nearer  approach 
to  unanimity  the  object  of  their  preference,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  decline  the  acceptance  of 
this  eminent  charge  and  to  submit  the  decision 
of  this  momentous  question  again  to  their  de- 
cision.” That  this  singular  and  striking  state- 
ment  was  made  in  good  faith  is  highly  probable. 
William  H.  Seward  saj^s  that  it  was  “ unques- 
tionably uttered  with  great  sincerity  of  heart.” 
The  test  of  action  of  course  could  not  be  ap- 
plied, since  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Adams  would 
only  have  made  Mr.  Calhoun  President,  and 
could  not  have  been  so  arranged  as  to  bring 
about  a new  election.  Otherwise  the  course  of 
Lis  argument  would  have  been  clear  ; the  fact 
that  such  action  involved  an  enormous  sacrifice 
would  have  been  to  his  mind  strong  evidence 


176 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAilS. 


that  it  was  a duty ; and  the  temptation  to  per- 
form a dutj^  always  strong  with  him,  became 
ungovernable  if  the  duty  was  exceptionally  dis- 
agreeable. Under  the  circumstances,  however, 
the  only  logical  conchision  lay  in  the  inaugura- 
tion, which  took  place  in  the  customary  simple 
fashion  on  March  4,  1825.  Mr.  Adams,  we  ai’e 
told,  was  dressed  in  a black  suit,  of  which  all 
the  materials  were  wholly  of  American  man- 
ufacture. Prominent  among  those  who  after 
the  ceremony  hastened  to  greet  him  and  to 
shake  hands  with  him  appeared  General  Jack- 
son.  It  was  the  last  time  that  any  friendly 
courtesy  is  recorded  as  having  passed  between 
the  two. 

IMany  men  eminent  in  public  affairs  have 
had  their  best  years  embittered  by  their  failure 
to  secure  the  glittering  prize  of  the  Presidency. 
]\Ir.  Adams  is  perhaps  the  only  person  to  whom 
the  gaining  of  that  proud  distinction  has  been 
in  some  measure  a cause  of  chagrin.  This 
strange  sentiment,  which  he  undoubtedly  felt, 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  what  he  had  wished 
was  not  the  office  in  and  for  itself,  but  the  office 
as  a symbol  or  token  of  the  popular  approval. 
He  had  lield  important  and  responsible  public 
positions  during  substantially  his  whole  active 
life  ; he  was  nearly  sixty  years  old,  and,  as  he 
fcaid,  he  now  for  the  first  time  had  an  oppor 


JOHN  QUIXCr  ADAMS. 


177 


tunit}'^  to  find  out  in  wliat  esteem  the  people  of 
the  country  held  him.  What  he  wished  was 
that  the  people  should  now  express  their  decided 
satisfaction  with  him.  This  he  hardly  could  be 
said  to  have  obtained ; though  to  be  the  choice 
of  a plurality  in  the  nation  and  then  to  be  se- 
lected by  so  intelligent  a body  of  constituents 
as  the  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
involved  a peculiar  sanction,  j^et  nothing  else 
could  fully  take  the  place  of  that  national  in- 
dorsement which  he  had  coveted.  When  men 
publicly  profess  modest  depreciation  of  their 
successes  they  are  seldom  believed ; but  in  his 
private  Diary  Mr.  Adams  wrote,  on  December 
31,  1825  : — 

“ The  year  has  been  the  most  momentous  of  those 
hat  have  passed  over  my  head,  inasmuch  as  it  has 
vitnessed  my  elevation  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight  to  the 
Chief  Magistracy  of  my  country,  to  the  summit  of 
laudable  or  at  least  blameless  worldly  ambition  ; not 
however  in  a manner  satisfactory  to  pride  or  to  just 
desire  ; not  by  the  unequivocal  suffrages  of  a majority 
of  the  people ; with  perhaps  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
people  adverse  to  the  actual  result.” 

No  President  since  Washington  had  ever 
come  into  office  so  entirely  free  from  any  man- 
ner of  personal  obligations  or  partisan  entangle- 
ments, express  or  implied,  as  did  Mr.  Adams. 
Throughout  the  campaign  he  had  not  himself, 
12 


178 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


or  by  any  agent,  held  out  any  manner  of  tacit 
inducement  to  any  person  whomsoever,  con- 
tingent upon  his  election.  He  entered  upon 
the  Presidency  under  no  indebtedness.  He  at 
once  nominated  his  Cabinet  as  follows : Henry 
Clay,  Secretary  of  State ; Richard  Rush,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasurj' ; James  Barbour,  Secre- 
tary of  War;  Samuel  L.  Southard,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  ; William  Wirt,  Attorney-General. 
The  last  two  were  renominations  of  the  incum- 
bents under  Monroe.  The  entire  absence  of 
chicanery  or  the  use  of  influence  in  the  distri- 
bution of  offices  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fol- 
lowing incident.  On  the  afternoon  following 
the  day  of  inauguration  President  Adams  called 
upon  Rufus  King,  whose  term  of  service  as  sen- 
ator from  New  York  had  just  expired,  and  who 
was  preparing  to  leave  Washington  on  the  next 
day.  In  the  course  of  a conversation  concern- 
ing the  nominations  which  had  been  sent  to  the 
Senate  that  forenoon  the  President  said  that 
he  had  nominated  no  minister  to  the  English 
court,  and 

“ asked  Mr.  King  if  he  would  accept  that  mission. 
His  first  and  immediate  impulse  was  to  decline  it.  He 
said  that  his  determination  to  retire  from  the  public 
service  had  been  made  up,  and  that  this  proposal  was 
utterly  unexpected  to  him.  Of  this  I was  aware  ; but 
I urged  upon  him  a variety  of  considerations  to  in 


JOHX  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


179 


duce  his  acceptance  of  it.  ...  I dwelt  with  earnest- 
ness upon  all  these  motives,  and  apparently  not  with- 
out effect.  He  admitted  the  force  of  them,  and  finally 
promised  fully  to  consider  of  the  proposal  before  giv- 
ing me  a definite  answer.” 

The  result  was  an  acceptance  by  Mr.  King, 
his  nomination  by  the  President,  and  confirma- 
tion by  the  Senate.  He  was  an  old  Federalist, 
to  whom  JMr.  Adams  owed  no  favors.  With 
such  directness  and  simplicity  were  the  affairs 
of  the  Republic  conducted.  It  is  a quaint  and 
pleasing  scene  from  the  period  of  our  fore- 
fathers: the  President,  without  discussion  of 
“ claims  ” to  a distinguished  and  favorite  post, 
actually  selects  for  it  a member  of  a hostile 
political  organization,  an  old  man  retiring  from 
public  life ; then  quietly  walks  over  to  his 
house,  surprises  him  with  the  offer,  and  find- 
ing him  reluctant  urgently  presses  upon  him 
arguments  to  induce  his  acceptance.  But  the 
whole  business  of  office-seeking  and  office-dis- 
tributing, now  so  overshadowing,  had  no  place 
under  Mr.  Adams.  On  March  5 he  sent  in  sev- 
eral nominations  which  were  nearly  all  of  pre- 
vious incumbents.  “ Efforts  had  been  made,” 
he  writes,  “ by  some  of  the  senators  to  obtain 
iifferent  nominations,  and  to  introduce  a prin- 
ciple of  change  or  rotation  in  office  at  the  ex- 
oiration  of  these  commissions,  which  would 


180 


.rOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


make  the  Government  a perpetual  and  unin- 
termitting scramble  for  office.  A more  perni- 
cious expedient  could  scarcely  have  been  de- 
vised. ...  I determined  to  renominate  every 
person  against  -whom  there  was  no  complaint 
which  would  have  warranted  his  removal.”  A 
notable  instance  was  that  of  Sterret,  naval  officer 
at  New  Orleans,  “ a noisy  and  clamorous  reviler 
of  the  Administration,”  and  lately  busy  in  a 
project  for  insulting  a Louisiana  Representative 
who  had  voted  for  Mr.  Adams.  Secretary  Clay 
was  urgent  for  the  removal  of  this  man,  plausi- 
bly saying  that  in  the  cases  of  persons  holding 
office  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Administration  the 
proper  course  was  to  avoid  on  the  one  hand  po- 
litical persecution,  and  on  the  other  any  appear- 
ance of  pusillanimity.  Mr.  Adams  replied  that 
if  Sterret  had  been  actually  engaged  in  insulting 
a representative  for  the  honest  and  independent 
discharge  of  duty,  he  would  make  the  removal 
at  once.  But  the  design  had  not  been  consum- 
mated, and  an  intention  never  carried  into  effect 
would  scarcely  justify  removal. 

“ Besides,”  he  added,  “should  I remove  this  man 
for  this  cause  it  must  be  upon  some  fixed  principle, 
vvhicli  would  apply  to  others  as  well  as  to  him.  And 
where  was  it  possible  to  draw  the  line  ? Of  the  cus- 
tom-house officers  throughout  the  Union,  four  fifths  is 
(ill  probability  were  opposed  to  my  election.  Craw 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


181 


ford,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  distributed  these 
positions  among  his  own  supporters.  I had  been 
urged  very  earnestly  and  from  various  quarters  to 
sweep  away  my  opponents  and  provide  with  their 
places  for  my  friends.  I can  justify  the  refusal  to 
adopt  this  policy  only  by  the  steadiness  and  consis- 
tency of  my  adhesion  to  my  own.  If  I depart  from 
this  in  one  instance  I shall  be  called  upon  by  my 
friends  to  do  the  same  in  many.  An  invidious  and 
inquisitorial  scrutiny  into  the  personal  dispositions  of 
public  officers  will  creep  through  the  whole  Union, 
and  the  mcst  selfish  and  sordid  passions  will  be 
kindled  into  activity  to  distort  the  conduct  and  mis- 
represent the  feelings  of  men  whose  places  may  be- 
come the  prize  of  slander  upon  them.” 

]\Ir.  Clay  was  silenced,  and  Sterret  retained 
his  position,  constituting  thereafter  only  a some- 
what striking  instance  among  many  to  show 
that  nothing  was  to  be  lost  by  political  oppo- 
sition to  i\Ir.  Adams. 

It  was  a cruel  and  discouraging  fatality  which 
brought  about  that  a man  so  suicidally  upright 
In  the  matter  of  patronage  should  find  that  the 
bitterest  abuse  which  was  heaped  upon  him  was 
founded  in  an  allegation  of  corruption  of  pre- 
cisely this  nature.  When  before  the  election  the 
ignoble  George  Kremer  anonymously  charged 
that  Mr.  Cla}^  had  sold  his  friends  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  Mr.  Adams,  “ as  the 
planter  does  his  negroes  or  the  farmer  his  team 


JO  UN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


).&2 

and  liovses ; ” when  Mr.  Clay  promptly  published 
the  unknown  writer  as  “ a base  and  infamous 
calumniator,  a dastard  and  a liar;”  when  next 
Kremer,  being  unmasked,  avowed  that  he  would 
make  good  his  charges,  but  immediately  after- 
ward actually  refused  to  appear  or  testify  before 
a Committee  of  the  House  instructed  to  inves- 
tigate the  matter,  it  was  supposed  by  all  reason- 
able observers  that  the  outrageous  accusation 
was  forever  laid  at  rest.  But  this  was  by  no 
means  the  case.  The  author  of  the  slander  had 
been  personally  discredited  ; but  the  slander 
itself  had  not  been  desti’oyed.  So  shrewdly 
had  its  devisers  who  saw  futui’e  usefulness  in  it 
managed  the  matter,  that  while  Kremer  slunk 
away  into  obscurity,  the  story  which  he  had 
told  remained  an  assertion  denied,  but  not  dis- 
proved, still  open  to  be  believed  by  suspicious 
or  willing  friends.  With  Adams  President  and 
Clay  Secretary  of  State  and  General  Jackson 
nominated,  as  he  quickly  was  by  the  Tennes- 
see Legislature,  as  a candidate  for  the  next 
Presidential  term,  the  accusation  was  too  plaus- 
ible and  too  tempting  to  be  allowed  to  fall  for- 
ever into  dusty  death  ; rather  it  was  speedily 
exhumed  from  its  shallow  burial  and  galvanized 
into  new  life.  The  partisans  of  General  Jack- 
son  sent  it  to  and  fro  throughout  the  land.  No 
denial,  no  argument,  could  kill  it.  It  began  tc 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


183 


gain  that  sort  of  half  belief  which  is  certain  to 
result  from  constant  repetition ; since  many 
minds  are  so  constituted  that  trutn  may  be  act- 
ualiy,  as  it  were,  manufactured  for  them  by 
ceaseless  iteration  of  statement,  the  many  hear- 
ings gaining  the  character  of  evidence. 

It  is  long  since  all  students  of  American  his- 
tory, no  matter  what  are  their  prejudices,  or  in 
whose  interest  their  researches  are  prosecuted, 
have  branded  this  accusation  as  devoid  of  even 
the  most  shadowy  basis  of  probability,  and  it 
now  gains  no  more  credit  than  would  a story 
that  Adams,  Clay,  and  Jackson  had  conspired 
together  to  get  Crawford  out  of  their  way  by 
assassination,  and  that  his  paralysis  was  the 
result  of  the  drugs  and  potions  administered  in 
performance  of  this  foul  plot.  But  for  a while 
the  rumor  stalked  abroad  among  the  people, 
and  many  conspicuously  bowed  down  before  it 
because  it  served  their  purpose,  and  too  many 
others  also,  it  must  be  confessed,  did  likewise 
because  they  were  deceived  and  really  believed 
it.  Even  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  were  not 
ashamed  to  give  formal  countenance  to  a cal- 
umny in  support  of  which  not  a particle  of  evi- 
dence had  ever  been  adduced.  In  a preamble 
to  certain  resolutions  passed  by  this  body  upon 
this  subject  in  1827,  it  was  recited  that : “ Mr. 
Adams  desired  the  office  of  President ; he  went 


184 


JOnN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


into  tlie  combination  without  it,  and  came  out 
witb  it.  Mr.  Clay  desired  that  of  Secretary  of 
State ; he  went  into  the  combination  without  it, 
and  came  out  with  it.”  No  other  charge  could 
have  wounded  Mr.  Adams  so  keenly ; yet  no 
course  was  open  to  him  for  refuting  the  slan- 
der. Mr.  Clay,  beside  himself  with  a just  rage, 
was  better  able  to  fight  after  the  fashion  of  the 
day  — if  indeed  he  could  only  find  somebody  to 
fight.  This  he  did  at  last  in  the  person  of  John 
Randolpli  of  Roanoke,  who  adverted  in  one 
of  his  rambling  and  vituperative  lumingues  to 
“the  coalition  of  Blifil  and  Black  George — tlie 
combination  unheard  of  till  then  of  the  Puritan 
and  the  black-leg.”  This  language  led  naturally 
enough  to  a challenge  from  Mr.  Clay.  The 
parties  met  ^ and  exchanged  shots  without  re- 
sult. The  pistols  were  a second  time  loaded ; 
Clay  fired ; Randolph  fired  into  the  air,  walked 
up  to  Clay  and  without  a word  gave  him  his 
hand,  which  Clay  had  as  it  were  perforce  to 
take.  There  was  no  injury  done  save  to  the 
skirts  of  Randolph’s  long  flannel  coat  which 
were  pierced  by  one  of  the  bullets. 

By  way  of  revenge  a duel  may  bo  effective  if 
the  wrong  man  does  not  happen  to  get  shot ; 
but  as  evidence  for  intelligent  men  a bloodier 
ending  than  this  would  have  been  inconclusive 

1 April  8,  1826 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


185 


[t  SO  happened,  however,  that  Jackson,  alto- 
gether contrary  to  his  own  purpose,  brought 
conclusive  aid  to  President  Adams  and  Secre- 
tary Clay.  Whether  the  General  ever  had  any 
real  faith  in  the  charge  can  only  be  surmised. 
Not  improbably  he  did,  for  his  mental  workings 
were  so  peculiar  in  their  violence  and  pi’ejudice 
that  apparently  he  always  sincerely  believed  all 
persons  who  crossed  his  path  to  be  knaves  and 
villains  of  the  blackest  die.  But  certain  it  is 
that  whether  he  credited  the  tale  or  not  he  soon 
began  to  devote  himself  with  all  his  wonted 
vigor  and  pertinacity  to  its  wide  dissemination. 
Whether  in  so  doing  he  was  stupidly  believing  a 
lie,  or  intentionally  spreading  a known  slander, 
is  a problem  upon  which  his  friends  and  biog- 
raphers have  exhausted  much  ingenuity  with- 
out reaching  any  certain  result.  But  sure  it  is 
that  early  in  the  year  1827  he  was  so  far  carried 
beyond  the  bounds  of  prudence  as  to  declare 
before  many  persons  that  he  had  proof  of  the 
corrupt  bargain.  The  assertion  was  promptly 
sent  to  the  newspapers  by  a JMr.  Carter  Bev- 
erly, one  of  those  who  heard  it  made  in  the 
presence  of  several  guests  at  the  Hermitage. 
The  name  of  hlr.  Beveil}',  at  first  concealed, 
soon  became  known,  and  he  was  of  course 
compelled  to  vouch  in  his  principal.  General 
lackson  nev’er  deserted  his  adherents,  whether 


186 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


their  difficulties  were  noble  or  ignoble.  He 
came  gallantly  to  the  aid  of  Mr.  Beverly,  and 
in  a letter  of  June  6 declared  that  early  in 
January,  1825,  he  had  been  visited  by  a “ mem- 
ber of  Congress  of  high  respectability,”  who 
had  told  him  of  “a  great  intrigue  going  on ” 
of  which  he  ought  to  be  informed.  This  gen- 
tleman had  then  proceeded  to  explain  that  I\Ir. 
Clay’s  friends  were  afraid  that  if  General  Jack- 
son  should  be  elected  President,  “ Mr.  Adams 
would  be  continued  Secretary  of  State  (innu- 
endo, there  would  be  no  room  for  Kentucky) ; 
that  if  I would  say,  or  permit  any  of  my  con- 
fidential friends  to  say,  that  in  case  I were 
elected  President,  Mr.  Adams  should  not  be 
continued  Secretary  of  State,  by  a complete 
union  of  Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  they  would 
put  an  end  to  the  Presidential  contest  in  one 
hour.  And  he  was  of  opinion  it  was  right  to 
fight  such  intriguers  with  their  own  weapons.” 
This  scarcely  disguised  suggestion  of  bargain 
and  corruption  the  General  said  that  he  repu- 
diated indignantly.  Clay  at  once  publicly  chal- 
lenged Jackson  to  produce  some  evidence  — to 
name  the  “ respectable  ” member  of  Congress 
who  appeared  in  the  very  unrespectable  light 
of  advising  a candidate  for  the  Presidency  to 
emulate  the  alleged  baseness  of  his  opponents. 
Jackson  thereupon  uncovered  James  Buchanan 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


187 


of  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Bnclianau  was  a friend 
of  the  Genera],  and  to  what  point  it  may  have 
been  expected  or  hoped  that  his  allegiance 
would  carry  him  in  support  of  his  chief  in  this 
dire  hour  of  extremity  is  matter  only  of  in- 
ference. Fortunately,  however,  his  fealty  does 
not  appear  to  have  led  him  any  great  distance 
from  the  truth.  He  yielded  to  the  prevailing 
desire  to  pass  along  the  responsibility  to  some 
one  else  so  far  as  to  try  to  bring  in  a Mr.  Mark- 
ley,  who,  however,  never  became  more  than  a 
dumb  figure  in  the  drama  in  which  Buchanan 
was  obliged  to  remain  as  the  last  important 
character.  With  obvious  reluctance  this  gen- 
tleman then  wrote  that  if  General  Jackson  had 
placed  any  such  construction  as  the  foregoing 
upon  an  interview  which  had  occurred  between 
them,  and  which  he  recited  at  length,  then  the 
General  had  totally  misconstrued  — as  was  evi- 
dent enough  — what  he,  Mr.  Buchanan,  had 
said.  Indeed,  that  Jackson  could  have  sup- 
posed him  to  entertain  the  sentiments  imputed 
to  him  made  Mr.  Buchanan,  as  he  said,  “ex- 
ceedingly unhappy.”  In  other  words,  there  was 
no  foundation  whatsoever  for  the  charge  thus 
traced  back  to  an  orminator  who  denied  having 
originated  it  and  said  that  it  was  all  a mistake. 
General  Jackson  was  left  Vo  be  defended  from 
the  accusation  of  delibera'^e  falsehood  only  by 


188 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  charitable  suggestion  that  he  had  been  un- 
able to  understand  a perfectly  simple  conver- 
sation. Apparently  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Clay 
ought  now  to  be  abundantly  satisfied,  since  not 
only  were  they  amply  vindicated,  but  their  chief 
vilifier  seemed  to  have  been  pierced  by  the 
point  which  he  had  sharpened  for  them.  They 
had  yet,  however,  to  learn  what  vitality  there  is 
in  falsehood. 

General  Jackson  and  his  friends  had  alone 
played  any  active  part  in  this  matter.  Of  these 
friends  Mr.  Kremer  had  written  a letter  of  re- 
traction and  apology  wliich  he  was  with  diffi- 
culty prevented  from  publishing ; Mr.  Buchanan 
had  denied  all  that  he  had  been  summoned  to 
prove  ; a few  years  later  Mr.  Beverly  wrote  and 
sent  to  Mr.  Clay  a contrite  letter  of  regret. 
General  Jackson  alone  remained  for  the  rest 
of  his  life  unsilenced,  obstinately  reiterating  a 
charge  disproved  by  his  own  witnesses.  But 
worse  than  all  this,  accumulations  of  evidence 
long  and  laboriously  sought  in  many  quarters 
have  established  a tolerably  strong  probability 
that  advances  of  precisely  the  character  alleged 
against  Mr.  Adams’s  friends  were  made  to  Mr. 
Clay  by  the  most  intimate  personal  associates 
of  General  Jackson.  The  discussion  of  this 
unpleasant  suspicion  would  not,  however,  be  an 
excusable  episode  in  this  short  volume.  The 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


189 


reader  who  is  curious  to  pursue  the  matter  fur- 
ther will  find  all  the  documentary  evidence  col- 
lected in  its  original  shape  in  the  first  volume 
of  Colton’s  Life  of  Clay,  accompanied  by  an 
argument  needlessly  elaborate  and  surcharged 
with  feeling  yet  in  the  main  sufficiently  fair 
and  exhaustive. 

Mr.  Benton  says  that  “ no  President  could 
have  commenced  his  administration  under  more 
unfavorable  auspices,  or  with  less  expectation 
of  a popular  career,”  than  did  Mr.  Adams. 
From  the  first  a strong  minority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  was  hostile  to  him,  and  the 
next  election  made  this  a majority.  The  first 
indication  of  the  shape  which  the  opposition 
was  to  take  became  visible  in  the  vote  in  the 
Senate  upon  confirming  Mr.  Clay  as  Secretary 
of  State.  There  were  fourteen  nays  against 
twenty-seven  yeas,  and  an  inspection  of  the 
list  showed  that  the  South  was  beginning  to 
consolidate  more  closely  than  heretofore  as  a 
sectional  force  in  politics.  The  formation  of 
a Southern  party  distinctly  organized  in  the 
interests  of  slavery,  already  apparent  in  the 
unanimity  of  the  Southern  Electoral  Colleges 
against  Mr.  Adams,  thus  received  further  illus- 
tration; and  the  skilled  eye  of  the  President 
noted  “the  rallying  of  the  South  and  of  South- 
ern interests  and  prejudices  to -the  men  of  the 


190 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


South.”  It  is  possible  now  to  see  plainly  that 
Ml'.  Adams  was  really  the  first  leader  in  the  long 
crusade  against  slavery  ; it  was  in  opposition  to 
him  that  the  South  became  a political  unit;  and 
a true  instinct  taught  him  the  trend  of  Southern 
politics  long  before  the  Northei’n  statesmen  ap- 
prehended it,  perhaps  before  even  any  Southern 
statesman  had  distinctly  formulated  it.  This 
new  development  in  the  politics  of  the  country 
soon  received  further  illustration.  The  first 
message  which  Mr.  Adams  had  occasion  to  send 
to  Congress  gave  another  opportunity  to  his  ill- 
wishers.  Therein  he  stated  that  the  invitation 
which  had  been  extended  to  the  United  States 
to  be  represented  at  the  Congress  of  Panama 
had  been  accepted,  and  that  he  should  commis- 
sion ministers  to  attend  the  meeting.  Neither 
in  matter  nor  in  manner  did  this  proposition 
contain  any  just  element  of  offence.  It  was 
customary  for  the  Executive  to  initiate  ncAv 
missions  simply  by  the  nomination  of  envoys  to 
fill  them ; and  in  such  case  the  Senate,  if  it  did 
not  think  the  suggested  mission  desirable  could 
simply  decline  to  confirm  the  nomination  upon 
that  ground.  An  example  of  this  has  been  al- 
ready seen  in  the  two  nominations  of  Mr.  Ad 
ams  himself  to  the  Court  of  Russia  in  the  Pres- 
idency of  Mr.  Madison.  But  now  vehement 
assaults  were  made  upon  the  President,  alike 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


191 


m the  Senate  and  in  the  House,  on  the  utterly 
absurd  ground  that  he  had  transcended  hia 
powers.  Incredible,  too,  as  it  may  seem  at  this 
day  it  was  actuall}'^  maintained  that  there  was 
no  occasion  whatsoever  for  the  United  States 
to  desire  representation  at  such  a gathering. 
Prolonged  and  hitter  was  the  opposition  which 
the  Administration  was  compelled  to  encounter 
in  a measure  to  which  there  so  obviously  ought 
to  have  been  instant  assent  if  considered  solely 
upon  its  intrinsic  merits,  but  upon  which  never- 
theless the  discussion  actually  overshadowed 
all  other  questions  which  arose  during  the  ses- 
sion. The  President  had  the  good  fortune  to 
find  the  powerful  aid  of  Mr.  Webster  enlisted 
in  his  behalf,  and  ultimately  he  prevailed ; but 
it  was  of  ill  augury  at  this  early  date  to  see 
that  personal  hostility  was  so  widespread  and 
so  rancorous  that  it  could  make  such  a pro- 
longed and  desperate  resistance  with  only  the 
faintest  pretext  of  right  as  a basis  for  its  action. 
Yet  a great  and  fundamental  cause  of  the  feel- 
ing manifested  lay  hidden  away  beneath  the 
surface  in  the  instinctive  antipathy  of  the  slave- 
holders to  iMr.  Adams  and  all  his  thoughts, 
his  ways,  and  his  doings.  For  into  this  ques- 
tion of  countenancincr  the  Panama  Cono-ress, 
davery  and  “the  South”  entered  and  imported 
into  a portion  of  the  opposition  a certain  ele- 


192 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ment  of  reasonableness  and  propriety  in  a po- 
litical sense.  When  we  see  tlie  Sontliern  states- 
men banded  against  President  Adams  in  these 
debates,  as  we  know  the  future  which  was  hid- 
den from  them,  it  almost  makes  us  believe  that 
their  vindictiveness  was  justified  by  an  instinct- 
ive forecasting  of  his  character  and  his  mission 
in  life,  and  that  without  knowing  it  they  al- 
ready felt  the  influence  of  the  acts  which  he  was 
yet  to  do  against  them.  For  the  South,  with- 
out present  dread  of  an  abolition  movement, 
yet  hated  this  Panama  Congress  with  a con- 
temptuous loathing  not  alone  because  the  South 
American  States  had  freed  all  slaves  within 
their  limits,  but  because  there  was  actually  a 
fair  chance  that  Ilayti  would  be  admitted  to 
representation  at  the  sessions  as  a sovereign 
state.  That  the  President  of  the  United  States 
should  propose  to  send  white  citizens  of  that 
country  to  sit  cheek  by  jowl  on  terms  of  offi- 
cial equality  with  the  revolted  blacks  of  Hayti, 
fired  the  Southern  heart  with  rage  inexpres- 
sible. The  proposition  was  a further  infusion 
of  cement  to  aid  in  the  Southern  consolidation 
60  rapidly  going  forward,  and  was  substantially 
rhe  beginning  of  the  sense  of  personal  aliena- 
tion henceforth  to  grow  steadily  more  bitter  on 
the  part  of  the  slaveholders  towards  Mr.  Ad- 
ams. Without  designing  it  he  had  struck  the 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  193 

first  blow  in  a fight  which  was  to  absorb  his 
energies  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Such  evil  forebodings  as  might  too  easily  be 
drawn  from  the  course  of  this  debate  were  soon 
and  amply  fulfilled.  The  opposition  increased 
rapidly  until  when  Congress  came  together  in 
December,  1827,  it  had  attained  overshadowing 
proportions.  Not  only  was  a member  of  that 
party  elected  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, but  a decided  majority  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress  was  arrayed  against  the  Adminis- 
tration — “a  state  of  things  which  had  never 
before  occurred  under  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.”  All  the  committees  too  were 
composed  of  four  opposition  and  only  three  Ad- 
ministration members.  With  more  exciting 
issues  this  relationship  of  the  executive  and  leg- 
islative departments  might  have  resulted  in 
dangerous  collisions  ; but  in  this  season  of  po- 
litical quietude  it  only  made  the  position  of  the 
President  extremely  uncomfortable.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  soon  became  recognized  as  the  formid- 
able leader  and  organizer  of  the  Jackson  forces. 
His  capacity  as  a political  strategist  was  so  far 
in  advance  of  that  of  any  other  man  of  those 
times  that  it  might  have  secured  success  even 
had  he  been  encountered  by  tactics  similar  to 
bis  own.  But  since  on  the  contrary  he  had  only 
to  meet  straightforward  simplicity  it  was  soon 

13 


194 


JOHN  OUINCY  ADAMS. 


apparent  that  he  would  have  everything  hia 
own  way.  It  was  disciplined  troops  against  the 
militia  of  honest  merchants  and  farmers;  and 
the  result  was  not  to  be  doubted.  Mr.  Adams 
and  his  friends  were  fond  of  comparing  Van 
Buren  with  Aaron  Burr,  though  predicting  that 
he  would  be  too  shrewd  to  repeat  Burr’s  blun- 
ders. From  the  beginning  they  declined  to 
meet  with  his  own  w'eapons  a man  whom  they 
so  contemned.  It  was  about  this  time  that  a 
new"  nomenclature  of  parties  was  introduced 
into  our  politics.  The  administrationists  called 
themselves  National  Republicans,  a name  which 
in  a few  years  was  changed  for  that  of  Whigs, 
while  the  opposition  or  Jacksonians  were  known 
as  Democrats,  a title  which  has  been  ever  since 
retained  by  the  same  party. 

The  story  of  Mr.  Adams’s  Administration  will 
detain  the  historian,  and  even  the  biographer, 
only  a very  short  time.  Not  an  event  occurred 
during  those  four  years  which  appears  of  any 
especial  moment.  Our  foreign  relations  were 
all  pacific  ; and  no  grave  crisis  or  great  issue  was 
developed  in  domestic  affairs.  It  was  a period 
of  tranquillity,  in  which  the  nation  advanced 
rapidly  in  prosperity.  For  many  years  dulness 
had  reigned  in  business,  but  returning  activity 
was  encouraged  by  the  policy  of  the  new  Gov- 
ernment, and  upon  all  sides  various  industriei 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


195 


became  active  and  thriving.  So  far  as  the  rule 
of  Mr.  Adams  was  marked  by  any  distinguish- 
ing characteristic,  it  was  by  a care  for  the  ma- 
terial welfare  of  the  people.  More  commercial 
treaties'  were  negotiated  during  his  Administra- 
tion than  in  the  thirty-six  years  preceding  his 
inauguration.  He  was  a strenuous  advocate  of 
internal  improvements,  and  happil}^  the  condi- 
tion of  the  national  finances  enabled  the  Gov- 
ernment to  embark  in  enterprises  of  this  kind. 
He  suggested  many  more  than  were  under- 
taken, but  not  perhaps  more  than  it  would  have 
been  quite  possible  to  carry  out.  He  was  al- 
ways chary  of  making  a show  of  himself  before 
the  people  for  the  sake  of  gaining  popularity. 
When  invited  to  attend  the  annual  exhibition 
of  the  IMaryland  Agricultural  Society,  shortly 
after  his  inauguration,  he  declined,  and  wrote 
in  his  Diary:  “To  gratify  this  wish  I must 
give  four  days  of  my  time,  no  trifle  of  expense, 
and  set  a pi'ecedent  for  being  claimed  as  an 
article  of  exhibition  at  all  the  cattle-shows 
throughout  the  Union.”  Other  gatherings 
would  prefer  equally  reasonable  demands,  in 
responding  to  which  “some  duty  must  be  neg- 
lected.” But  the  opening  of  the  Chesapeake 
Sind  Ohio  Canal  was  an  event  sufficiently  mo- 
mentous and  national  in  its  character  to  justify 
the  President’s  attendance.  He  was  requested 


196 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


in  the  presence  of  a great  concourse  of  people 
4o  dig  the  first  shovelful  of  earth  and  to  make 
a brief  address.  The  speech-making  was  easy ; 
but  when  the  digging  was  to  be  done  he  en- 
countered some  unexpected  obstacle  and  the 
soil  did  not  yield  to  his  repeated  efforts.  Not 
to  be  defeated,  however,  he  stripped  off  his 
coat,  went  to  work  in  earnest  with  the  spade 
and  raised  tlie  earth  successfully.  Naturally 
such  readiness  was  hailed  with  loud  applause 
and  pleased  the  great  crowd  who  saw  it.  But 
in  Mr.  Adams’s  career  it  was  an  exceptional  oc- 
currence that  enabled  him  to  conciliate  a mo- 
mentary popularity  ; it  was  seldom  that  he  en- 
joyed or  used  an  opportunity  of  gaining  the 
cheap  admiration  or  shallow  friendship  of  the 
multitude. 

At  least  one  moral  to  be  drawn  from  the 
story  of  Mr.  Adams’s  Presidency  perhaps  de- 
serves rather  to  be  called  an  immoral,  and  cer- 
tainly furnishes  unwelcome  support  to  those 
persons  who  believe  that  conscientiousness  is 
out  of  place  in  politics.  It  has  been  said  that 
no  sooner  was  General  Jackson  fairly  defeated 
than  he  was  again  before  the  people  as  a can- 
didate for  the  next  election.  An  opposition  to 
the  new  Administration  was  in  process  of  for- 
mation actually  before  there  had  been  time  for 
that  Administration  to  declare,  much  less  tc 


JOHN  QUJKCY  ADAMS. 


197 


carry  out,  any  policy  or  even  any  measure.  The 
opposition  was  therefore  not  one  of  principle; 
it  ^yas  not  dislike  of  anything  done  or  to  be 
done;  it  did  not  pretend  to  have  a purpose  of 
saving  the  people  from  blunders  or  of  offering 
them  greater  advantages.  It  was  simply  an  op- 
position, or  more  properly  an  hostility,  to  the 
President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  was  conducted 
by  persons  who  wished  in  as  short  a time  as 
possible  themselves  to  control  and  fill  those  po- 
sitions. The  sole  ground  upon  which  these  op- 
ponents stood  was,  that  they  would  rather  have 
General  Jackson  at  the  head  of  affairs  than  Mr. 
Adams.  The  issue  was  purely  personal ; it  was 
BO  when  the  opposition  first  developed,  and  it 
remained  so  until  that  opposition  triumphed. 

Under  no  circumstances  can  it  be  more  ex- 
cusable for  an  elective  magistrate  to  seek  per- 
sonal good-will  towards  himself  than  when  his 
rival  seeks  to  supplant  him  simplj^  on  the  basis 
of  enjoying  a greater  measure  of  such  good-will. 
Had  any  important  question  of  policy  been  di- 
viding the  people  it  would  have  been  easy  for  a 
man  of  less  moral  courage  and  independence  than 
belonged  to  Mr.  Adams  to  select  the  side  whicli 
he  thought  right  and  to  await  the  outcome  at 
least  with  constancy.  But  the  only  real  ques- 
tion raised  was  this : will  IMr.  Adams  or  Gen- 
eral Jackson  — two  individuals  representing  as 


I98  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

yet  no  antagonistic  policies  — be  preferred  by 
the  greater  number  of  voters  in  1829  ? If,  how- 
ever, there  was  no  great  apparent  issue  open  be- 
tween these  two  men,  at  least  there  was  a very 
wide  difference  between  their  characters,  a point 
of  some  consequence  in  a wholly  personal  com- 
petition. It  is  easy  enough  now  to  see  how  this 
gaping  difference  displayed  itself  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  how  the  advantage  for  winning  was 
throughout  wholly  on  the  side  of  Jackson.  The 
course  to  be  pursued  by  Mr.  Adams  in  order  to 
insure  victory  was  obvious  enough  ; being  sim- 
ply to  secure  the  largest  following  and  most 
efficient  support  possible.  The  arts  by  which 
these  objects  were  to  be  attained  were  not  ob- 
scure nor  beyond  his  power.  If  he  wished  a 
second  term,  as  beyond  question  he  did,  two 
methods  were  of  certain  utility.  He  should 
make  the  support  of  his  Administration  a source 
of  profit  to  the  supporters  ; and  he  should  con- 
ciliate good-will  by  every  means  that  offered. 
To  the  former  end  what  more  efficient  means 
could  be  devised  than  a body  of  office-holders 
owing  their  positions  to  his  appointment  and 
likely  to  have  the  same  terra  of  office  as  him- 
self? His  neglect  to  create  such  a corps  of 
staunch  supporters  cannot  be  explained  on  the 
ground  that  so  jffain  a scheme  of  perpetuating 
power  had  not  then  been  devised  in  the  Repub 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


199 


lie.  Ml’.  Jefferson  had  practised  it,  to  an  extent 
which  now  seems  moderate,  but  which  had  been 
Bufficiently  extensive  to  deprive  any  successor 
of  the  honor  of  novelty  in  originating  it.  The 
times  were  ripe  for  it,  and  the  nation  would  not 
have  revolted  at  it,  as  was  made  apparent  when 
General  Jackson,  succeeding  Mr.  Adams,  at 
once  carried  out  the  system  with  a thoroughness 
that  has  never  been  surpassed,  and  with  a suc- 
cess in  achieving  results  so  great  that  almost 
no  politician  has  since  failed  to  have  recourse 
to  the  same  practice.  Suggestions  and  temp- 
tations, neither  of  which  were  wanting,  were 
however  alike  thrown  away  upon  Mr.  Adams. 
Friendship  or  hostility  to  the  President  were 
the  only  two  matters  which  were  sure  to  have 
no  effect  whatsoever  upon  the  fate  of  an  incum- 
bent or  an  aspirant.  Scarcely  any  removals 
were  made  during  his  Administration,  and  every 
one  of  the  few  was  based  solely  upon  a proved 
unfitness  of  the  official.  As  a consequence  very 
few  new  appointments  were  made,  and  in  every 
instance  the  appointee  was,  or  was  believed  to 
be,  the  fittest  man  without  regard  to  his  political 
bias.  This  entire  elimination  of  the  question  of 
party  allegiance  from  every  department  of  the 
public  service  was  not  a specious  protestation, 
out  an  undeniable  fact  at  which  friends  gram 
bled  bitterly,  and  upon  which  foes  counted  often 


200 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


with  an  ungenerous  but  always  with  an  implicit 
reliance.  It  was  well  known,  for  example,  that 
in  the  Customs  Department  there  were  many 
more  avowed  opponents  than  supporters  of  the 
Administration.  Wliat  was  to  be  thought,  tlie 
latter  angrily  asked,  of  a President  who  refused 
to  make  any  distinction  between  tlie  sheep  and 
the  goats  ? But  while  Mr.  Adams,  unmoved  by 
argument,  anger,  or  entreaty,  thus  alienated 
many  and  discouraged  all,  every  one  was  made 
acquainted  with  the  antipodal  principles  of  his 
rival.  The  consequence  was  inevitable  ; many 
abandoned  Adams  from  sheer  irritation  ; multi- 
tudes became  cool  and  indifferent  concerning 
him  ; the  great  number  of  those  whose  political 
faith  was  so  weak  as  to  be  at  the  ready  com- 
mand of  their  own  intei’ests,  or  the  interests  of 
a friend  or  relative,  yielded  to  a pressure  against 
which  no  counteracting  force  was  employed.  In 
a word,  no  one  who  had  not  a strong  and  inde- 
pendent personal  conviction  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Ad- 
ams found  the  slightest  inducement  to  belong  to 
his  party.  It  did  not  require  much  political  sa- 
gacity to  see  that  in  quiet  times,  with  no  great 
issue  visibly  at  stake,  a following  thus  composed 
could  not  include  a majority  of  the  nation.  It  is 
true  that  in  fact  there  was  opening  an  issue  as 
great  as  has  ever  been  presented  to  the  Ameri- 
can people  — an  issue  between  government  con 


JORN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


201 


ducted  with  a sole  view  to  efficiency  and  honesty, 
and  government  conducted  very  largely,  if  not 
exclusively,  with  a view  to  individual  and  party 
ascendancy.  The  new  system  afterward  inaug- 
urated by  Geuei’al  Jackson,  directly  opposite  to 
that  of  Mr.  Adams  and  presenting  a contrast  to 
it  as  wide  as  is  to  be  found  in  histoiy,  makes 
this  fact  glaringly  plain  to  us.  But  during  the 
years  of  Mr.  Adams’s  Administration  it  was 
dimly  perceived  only  by  a few.  Only  one  side 
of  the  shield  had  then  been  shown.  The  people 
did  not  appreciate  that  Adams  and  Jackson 
were  representatives  of  two  conflicting  prin- 
ciples of  administration  which  went  to  the  very 
basis  of  our  system  of  government.  Had  the 
issue  been  as  apparent  and  as  well  understood 
then  as  it  is  now,  in  retrospect,  the  decision  of 
the  nation  might  have  been  different.  But  un- 
fortunately the  voters  only  beheld  two  individ- 
uals pitted  against  each  other  for  the  popular 
suffrage,  of  whom  one,  a brilliant  soldier,  would 
stand  by  and  reward  his  fi’iends,  and  the  other, 
an  uninteresting  civilian,  ignored  all  distinction 
between  friend  and  foe. 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  refusal  to  use  patron- 
age that  Mr.  Adams’s  rigid  conscientiousness 
showed  itself.  He  was  equally  obstinate  in  de- 
clining ever  to  stretch  a point  however  slightly 
in  order  to  win  the  favor  of  any  body  of  the 


202 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


people  whether  large  or  small.  He  was  warned 
that  his  extensive  schemes  for  internal  improve- 
ment would  alienate  especially  the  important 
State  of  Virginia.  He  could  not  of  course  be 
expected  to  change  his  policy  out  of  respect 
to  Virginian  prejudices;  but  he  was  advised  to 
mitigate  his  expression  of  that  policy,  and  to 
some  extent  it  was  open  to  him  to  do  so.  But 
he  would  not;  his  utterances  went  the  full 
length  of  his  opinions,  and  he  persistently  urged 
upon  Congress  many  plans  which  he  approved, 
but  which  he  could  not  have  the  faintest  hopes 
of  seeing  adopted.  The  consequence  was  that 
he  displeased  Virginia.  He  notes  the  fact  in 
the  Diary  in  the  tone  of  one  who  endures  pei’- 
secution  for  righteousness’  sake,  and  who  means 
to  be  very  stubborn  in  his  righteousness.  Again 
it  was  suggested  to  him  to  embody  in  one  of  his 
messages  “ something  soothing  for  South  Caro- 
lina.” But  there  stood  upon  the  statute  books 
of  South  Carolina  an  unconstitutional  law  which 
had  greatly  embarrassed  the  national  govern- 
ment, and  which  that  rebellious  little  State  with 
characteristic  contumaciousness  would  not  re- 
peal. Under  such  circumstances,  said  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, I have  no  “ soothing  ” words  for  South 
Carolina. 

It  was  not  alone  by  what  he  did  and  by  what 
he  would  not  do  that  Mr.  Adams  tolled  to  in 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


203 


sure  the  election  of  General  Jackson  far  more 
sedulously  and  efficiently  than  did  the  General 
himself  or  any  of  his  partisans.  In  most  cases 
it  was  probably  the  manner  quite  as  much  as 
the  act  which  made  Mr.  Adams  unpopular.  In 
his  anxiety  to  be  upright  he  was  undoubtedly 
prone  to  be  needlessly  disagreeable.  His  un- 
compromising temper  put  on  an  ungracious  as- 
pect. His  conscientiousness  wore  the  appear- 
ance of  offensiveness.  The  Puritanism  in  his 
character  was  strongly  tinged  with  that  old  New 
England  notion  that  whateyer  is  disagreeable  is 
probably  right,  and  that  a painful  refusal  would 
lose  half  its  merit  in  being  expressed  courteously; 
that  a right  action  should  never  be  done  in  a 
pleasing  way ; n ot  only  that  no  pill  should  be 
sugar-coated,  but  that  the  bitterest  ingredient 
should  be  placed  on  the  outside.  In  repudiat- 
ing attractive  vices  the  Puritans  had  rejected 
also  those  amenities  which  might  have  decently 
concealed  or  even  mildly  decorated  the  forbid- 
ding angularities  of  a naked  Virtue  which  cer- 
tainly did  not  imitate  the  form  of  any  goddess 
who  had  ever  before  attracted  followers.  Mr. 
Adams  was  a complete  and  thorough  Puritan, 
wonderfully  little  modified  by  times  and  circum- 
stances. The  ordinary  arts  of  propitiation 
Ivould  have  appeared  to  him  only  a feeble  and 
jiluted  form  of  dishonesty;  while  suavity  and 


204 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


graciousness  of  demeanor  would  have  seemed  a& 
unbecoming  to  this  rigid  ofl&cial  as  love-making 
or  wine-bibbing  seem  to  a strait-laced  parson. 
It  was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  he  should  never 
avert  by  his  words  any  ill-will  naturally  caused 
by  his  acts  ; that  he  should  never  soothe  disap- 
pointment, or  attract  calculating  selfishness.  He 
was  an  adept  in  alienation,  a novice  in  concilia- 
tion. His  magnetism  was  negative.  He  made 
few  friends ; and  had  no  interested  following 
whatsoever.  No  one  was  enthusiastic  on  his  be- 
half ; no  band  worked  for  him  with  the  ardor  of 
personal  devotion.  His  party  was  composed  of 
those  who  had  sufficient  intelligence  to  appre- 
ciate his  integrity  and  sufficient  honesty  to  ad- 
mire it.  These  persons  respected  him,  and  when 
election  day  came  they  would  vote  for  him  ; but 
they  did  not  canvas  zealously  in  his  behalf,  nor 
do  such  service  for  him  as  a very  different  kind 
of  feeling  induced  the  Jackson  men  to  do  for 
their  candidate.^  The  fervid  laborers  in  pol- 
itics left  Mr.  Adams  alone  in  his  chilling  re- 

1 Mr.  Mills,  in  writing  of  Mr.  Adams’s  inauguration,  ex- 
pressed well  what  many  felt.  “ This  same  President  of  onrs 
is  a man  that  I can  never  court  nor  be  on  very  familiar  terras 
with.  There  is  a cold,  repulsive  atmosphere  about  him  that  is 
too  chilling  for  my  respiration,  and  I shall  certainly  keep  at  a 
distance  from  its  influence.  I wish  him  God-speed  in  his  Ad 
ministration,  and  am  heartily  disposed  to  lend  him  my  feebl* 
lid  whenever  he  may  need  it  in  a correct  course ; but  he  can 


JOUX  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


205 


spectability,  and  went  over  to  a camp  where  all 
Bcruples  were  consumed  in  the  glowing  heat  of 
a campaign  conducted  upon  the  single  and  sim- 
ple principle  of  securing  victory. 

Mr.  Adams’s  relations  with  the  members  of 
his  Cabinet  were  friendly  thi-oughout  his  term. 
Men  of  their  character  and  ability,  bi’ought 
into  daily  contact  with  him,  could  not  fail  to 
appreciate  and  admire  the  purity  of  his  motives 
and  the  patriotism  of  his  conduct ; nor  was  he 
wanting  in  a measure  of  consideration  and  def- 
erence towards  them  perhaps  somewhat  greater 
than  might  have  been  expected  from  him,  some- 
times even  carried  to  the  point  of  yielding  his 
opinion  in  matters  of  consequence.  It  was  his 

not  expect  me  to  become  his  warm  and  devoted  partisan.”  A 
like  sentiment  was  expressed  also  much  more  vigorously  by 
Ezekiel  "Webster  to  Daniel  Web.ster,  in  a letter  of  February  15, 
1829.  The  writer  there  attributes  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Adams 
to  personal  dislike  to  him.  People,  he  said,  “always  sup- 
ported his  cause  from  a cold  sense  of  duty,”  and  “ we  soon  sat- 
isfy ourselves  that  we  have  discharged  our  duty  to  the  cause 
of  any  man  when  we  do  not  entertain  for  him  one  personal 
kind  feeling,  nor  cannot  unless  we  disembowel  ourselves  like  a 
trussed  turkey  of  all  that  is  human  nature  within  us.”  With 
a candidate  “of  popular  character,  like  Mr.  Clay,”  the  result 
would  have  been  different.  “ The  measures  of  his  [Adams’s] 
Administration  were  just  and  wise  and  every  honest  man 
should  have  supported  them,  but  many  nonest  men  did  not  for 
,he  reason  I have  mentioned.”  — Webster’s  Private  Corr» 
ipondence,  vol.  i.  p.  469. 


206 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


wish  that  the  unity  of  the  body  should  remain 
unbroken  during  his  four  years  of  office,  and 
the  wish  was  very  nearly  realized.  Unfortu- 
nately, however,  in  his  last  year  it  became  neces- 
sary for  him  to  fill  the  mission  to  England,  and 
Governor  Bai’bour  was  extremely  anxious  for 
tlie  place.  It  was  already  apparent  that  the 
coming  election  was  likely  to  result  in  the  suc- 
cession of  Jackson,  and  Mr.  Adams  notes  that 
Barbour’s  extreme  desire  to  receive  the  appoint- 
ment was  due  to  his  wish  to  find  a good  harbor 
ere  the  approaching  storm  should  burst.  The 
remark  was  made  without  anger,  in  the  tone  of 
a man  who  had  seen  enough  of  the  world  not  to 
expect  too  much  from  any  of  his  fellow-men  ; 
and  the  appointment  was  made,  somewhat  to 
the  chagrin  of  Webster  and  Rush,  either  one  of 
whom  would  have  gladly  accepted  it.  The 
vacancy  thus  caused,  the  only  one  which  arose 
during  his  term,  was  filled  by  General  Peter  B. 
Porter,  a gentleman  whom  Mr.  Adams  selected 
not  as  his  own  choice,  but  out  of  respect  to  the 
wishes  of  the  Cabinet,  and  in  order  to  “ termi- 
nate the  Administration  in  harmonj"  with  itself.” 
The  only  seriously  unpleasant  occurrence  was 
the  treachery  of  Postmaster-General  McLean, 
who  saw  fit  to  profess  extreme  devotion  to  Mr. 
Adams  while  secretly  aiding  General  Jackson. 
His  perfidy  was  not  undetected,  and  great  pres 


JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS. 


20? 


sure  was  hrouglifc  to  bear  on  tlie  President  to 
remove  Lira.  Mr.  Adams,  however,  refused  to 
do  so,  and  McLean  had  the  satisfaction  of  step- 
ping from  his  post  under  Mr.  Adams  into  a 
judgeship  conferred  by  General  Jackson,  hav- 
ing shown  his  impartiality  and  judicial  turn  of 
mind,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  by  declaring  his 
. warm  allegiance  to  each  master  in  turn. 

The  picture  of  President  Adams’s  daily  life 
is  striking  in  its  simplicity  and  its  laboriousness. 
This  chief  magistrate  of  a great  nation  was 
wont  to  rise  before  daybreak,  often  at  four  or 
five  o’clock  even  in  winter,  not  unfrequently  to 
build  and  light  his  own  fire,  and  to  work  hard 
for  hours  when  most  persons  in  busy  life  were 
still  comfortably  slumbering.  The  forenoon  and 
afternoon  he  devoted  to  public  affairs,  and  often 
he  complains  that  the  unbroken  stream  of  vis- 
itors gives  him  little  opportunity  for  hard  or 
continuous  labor.  Such  work  he  was  compelled 
to  do  chiefly  in  the  evening ; and  he  did  not  al- 
ways make  up  for  early  hours  of  rising  by  a 
correspondingly  early  bed-time ; though  some- 
times in  the  summer  we  find  him  going  to  bed 
between  eight  and  nine  o'clock,  an  hour  which 
probably  few  Presidents  have  kent  since  then. 
He  strove  to  care  for  his  heaPh  by  daily  exer- 
cise. In  the  morning  he  swam  in  the  Potomac, 
often  for  a long  time  ; and  more  than  once  he 


208 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


encountered  no  small  risk  in  this  pastime.  Dur 
ing  the  latter  part  of  his  Presidential  term  he 
tried  riding  on  horseback.  At  times  when  the 
weather  compelled  him  to  walk,  and  business 
was  pressing,  he  used  to  get  his  daily  modicum 
of  fresh  air  before  the  sun  was  up.  A life  of 
this  kind  with  more  of  hardship  than  of  relax- 
ation in  it  was  ill  fitted  to  sustain  in  robust 
health  a man  sixty  years  of  age,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  Mr.  Adams  often  complained  of 
feeling  ill,  dejected,  and  weary.  Yet  he  never 
spared  himself,  nor  apparently  thought  his  hab- 
its too  severe,  and  actually  toward  the  close  of 
his  term  he  spoke  of  his  trying  daily  routine  as 
constituting  a very  agreeable  life.  He  usually 
began  the  day  by  reading  “ two  or  three  chap- 
ters in  the  Bible  with  Scott’s  and  Hewlett’s  Com- 
mentaries,” being  always  a profoundly  religious 
man  of  the  old-fashioned  school  then  prevalent 
in  New  England. 

It  could  hardly  have  added  to  the  meagre 
comforts  of  such  a life  to  be  threatened  with 
assassination.  Yet  this  danger  was  thrust  upon 
hlr.  Adams’s  attention  upon  one  occasion  at 
least  under  circumstances  which  gave  to  it  a 
very  serious  aspect.  The  tranquillity  with  which 
he  went  through  the  affair  showed  that  his 
physical  courage  was  as  imperturbable  as  hia 
rnoral.  The  risk  was  protracted  throughout  a 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


209 


Considerable  period,  but  be  never  let  it  disturb 
the  even  tenor  of  bis  daily  behavior  or  warp 
his  actions  in  the  slightest  degree,  save  only 
that  when  he  was  twice  or  thrice  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  intending  assassin  he  treated 
the  fellow  with  somewhat  more  curt  brusque- 
ness than  was  his  wont.  But  when  the  danger 
was  over  he  bore  his  would-be  murderer  no 
malice,  and  long  afterward  actually  did  him  a 
kindly  service. 

Few  men  in  public  life  have  been  subjected  to 
trials  of  temper  so  severe  as  vexed  Mr.  Adams 
during  his  Presidential  term.  To  play  an  in- 
tensely exciting  game  strictly  in  accordance  with 
rigid  moral  rules  of  the  player’s  own  arbitrary 
enforcement,  and  which  are  utterly  repudiated 
by  a less  scrupulous  antagonist,  can  hardly 
tend  to  promote  contentment  and  amiability. 
Neither  are  slanders  and  falsehoods  mollifying 
applications  to  a statesman  inspired  with  an  up- 
right and  noble  ambition.  Mr.  Adams  bore  such 
assaults  ranging  from  the  charge  of  having  cor- 
ruptly bought  the  Presidency  down  to  that  of 
being  a Freemason  with  such  grim  stoicism  as 
he  could  command.  The  disappearance  and 
probable  assassination  of  Morgan  at  this  time 
led  to  a strong  feeling  throughout  the  country 
against  Freemasonry,  and  the  Jackson  men  at 
u 


210 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


once  proclaimed  abroad  tliat  Adams  was  one  of 
tlie  brotberbood  and  offered,  if  be  should  deny 
it,  to  pi’oduce  tbe  records  of  tbe  lodge  to  wbicb 
be  belonged.  Tbe  allegation  was  false";  be  was 
not  a Mason,  and  bis  friends  urged  bim  to  say 
so  publicly ; but  be  replied  bitterly  that  bis 
denial  would  probably  at  once  be  met  by  a com- 
plete set  of  forged  records  of  a fictitious  lodge, 
and  tbe  people  would  not  know  whom  to  be- 
lieve. Next  be  was  said  to  have  bargained  for 
tbe  support  of  Daniel  Webster,  by  promising 
to  distribute  offices  to  Federalists.  This  accusa- 
tion was  a cruel  perversion  of  bis  very  virtues ; 
for  its  only  foundation  lay  in  tbe  fact  that  in 
tbe  venturesome  but  honorable  attempt  to  be 
President  of  a nation  rather  than  of  a party, 
he  had  in  some  instances  given  offices  to  old 
Federalists,  certainly  with  no  hope  or  possibil- 
ity of  reconciling  to  himself  tbe  almost  useless 
wreck  of  that  now  powerless  and  shrunken 
party,  one  of  whose  liveliest  traditions  was 
hatred  of  bim.  Stories  were  even  set  afloat 
that  some  of  bis  accounts,  since  be  bad  been  in 
tbe  public  service,  were  incorrect.  But  tbe 
most  extraordinary  and  ridiculous  tale  of  all 
was  that  during  bis  residence  in  Russia  he  bad 
prostituted  a beautiful  American  girl,  whom  he 
then  bad  in  bis  service,  in  order  “ to  seduce  tbe 
passions  of  tbe  Emperor  Alexander  and  sway 
him  to  political  purposes.” 


JOnN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


211 


These  and  other  like  provocations  were  not 
only  discouraging  but  very  irritating,  and  Mr. 
Adams  was  not  of  that  careless  disposition 
which  is  little  affected  by  unjust  accusation. 
On  the  contrary  he  was  greatly  incensed  by 
such  treatment,  and  though  he  made  the  most 
stern  and  persistent  effort  to  endure  an  inev- 
itable trial  with  a patience  born  of  philosophy, 
since  indifference  was  not  at  his  command,  yet 
he  could  not  refrain  from  the  expression  of  his 
sentiments  in  his  secret  communings.  Occa- 
sionally he  allowed  his  wrath  to  explode  with 
harmless  violence  between  the  covers  of  the 
Diary,  and  doubtless  he  found  relief  while  he 
discharged  his  fierce  diatribes  on  these  private 
sheets.  His  vituperative  power  was  great,  and 
some  specimens  of  it  may  not  come  amiss  in  a 
sketch  of  the  man.  The  senators  who  did  not 
call  upon  him  he  regarded  as  of  “rancorous 
spirit.”  He  spoke  of  the  falsehoods  and  misrep- 
resentations which  “ the  skunks  of  party  slander 
. . . have  been  . . . squirting  round  the  House 
of  Representatives,  thence  to  issue  and  perfume 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Union.”  His  most  in- 
tense hatred  and  vehement  denunciation  were 
reserved  for  John  Randolph,  whom  he  thought 
an  abomination  too  odious  and  despicable  to  bo 
described  in  words,  “the  image  and  superscrip- 
tion of  a great  man  stamped  upon  base  metal,  ’ 


212 


JOIIN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


“ The  besotted  violence  ” of  Randolph,  he  said, 
has  depi’ived  him  of  “ all  right  to  personal 
civility  from  me ; ” and  certainly  this  excom- 
munication from  courtesy  was  made  complete 
and  effective.  He  speaks  again  of  the  same 
victim  as  a “ frequenter  of  gin  lane  and  beer 
alley.”  He  indignantly  charges  that  Calhoun, 
as  Speaker,  permitted  Randolph  “in  speeches  of 
ten  hours  long  to  drink  himself  drunk  with 
bottled  porter,  and  in  raving  balderdash  of  the 
meridian  of  Wapping  to  revile  the  absent  and 
the  present,  the  living  and  the  dead.”  This,  he 
says,  was  “ tolerated  by  Calhoun,  because  Ran- 
dolph’s ribaldry  was  all  pointed  against  the 
Administration,  especially  against  Mr.  Clay  and 
me.”  Again  he  writes  of  Randolph:  “The 
rancor  of  this  man’s  soul  against  me  is  that 
which  sustains  his  life ; the  agony  of  [his] 
envy  and  hatred  of  me,  and  the  hope  of  effect- 
ing my  downfall,  are  [his]  chief  remaining 
sources  of  vitality.  The  issue  of  the  Presiden- 
tial election  will  kill  [him]  by  the  gratification 
of  [his]  revenge.”  So  it  was  also  with  W.  B. 
Giles  of  Virginia.  But  Giles’s  abuse  was  easier 
to  bear  since  it  had  been  poured  in  torrents 
upon  every  reputable  man,  from  Washington 
downwards,  who  had  been  prominent  in  public 
affairs  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
BO  that  Giles’s  memory  is  now  preserved  fron? 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


2l3 


dblivioii  solely  by  the  connection  which  he  es- 
tablished with  the  great  and  honorable  states- 
men of  the  Republic  by  a course  of  ceaseless 
attacks  upon  them.  Some  of  the  foregoing  ex- 
pressions of  i\Ir.  Adams  may  be  open  to  objec- 
tion on  the  score  of  good  taste  ; but  the  provo- 
cation was  extreme  ; public  retaliation  he  would 
not  practise,  and  wrath  must  sometimes  burst 
forth  in  languao-e  which  was  not  so  unusual  in 
that  day  as  it  is  at  present.  It  is  an  unques- 
tionable fact,  of  which  the  credit  to  Mr.  Adams 
can  hardly  be  exaggerated,  that  he  never  in 
any  single  instance  found  an  excuse  for  an  un- 
worthy act  on  his  own  part  in  the  fact  that  com- 
petitors or  adversaries  were  resorting  to  such  ex- 
pedients. 

The  election  of  1828  gave  178  votes  for  Jack- 
son  and  only  83  for  Adams.  Calhoun  was  con- 
tinued as  Vice-President  by  171  votes,  showing 
plainly  enough  that  even  yet  there  were  not 
two  political  parties,  in  any  customary  or  proper 
sense  of  the  phrase.  The  victory  of  Jackson  had 
been  foreseen  by  every  one.  What  had  been  so 
generally  anticipated  could  not  take  Mr.  Adams 
by  surprise  ; yet  it  was  iile  for  him  to  seek  to 
conceal  his  disappointment  that  an  Administra- 
tion which  he  had  conducted  with  his  best  abil- 
ity and  with  thorough  conscientiousness  should 


214 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


not  have  seemed  to  the  people  worthy  of  con- 
tinuance for  another  term.  Little  suspecting 
what  the  future  had  in  store  for  him,  he  felt  that 
his  public  career  had  culminated  and  probably 
had  closed  forever,  and  that  if  it  had  not  closed 
exactly  in  disgrace,  yet  at  least  it  could  not  be 
regarded  as  ending  gloriously  or  even  satisfac- 
torily. But  he  summoned  all  his  philosophy  and 
fortitude  to  his  aid  ; he  fell  back  upon  his  clear 
conscience  and  comported  himself  witli  dignity, 
showing  all  reasonable  courtesy  to  his  successor 
and  only  perhaps  seeming  a little  deficient  in 
filial  piety  in  presenting  so  striking  a contrast 
to  the  shameful  conduct  of  his  father  in  a like 
crucial  hour.  His  retirement  brought  to  a close 
a list  of  Presidents  who  deserved  to  be  called 
statesmen  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  term,  hon- 
orable men,  pure  patriots,  and,  with  perhaps  one 
exception,  all  of  the  first  order  of  ability  in  pub 
lie  affairs.  It  is  necessai-y  to  come  far  down  to- 
wards this  day  before  a worthy  successor  of  those 
great  men  is  met  with  in  the  list.  Dr.  Von  Holst, 
by  far  the  ablest  writer  who  lias  yet  dealt  with 
American  histoi’y,  says : “ In  the  person  of  Ad- 
ams the  last  statesman  who  was  to  occupy  it 
for  a long  time  left  the  White  House.”  Gen- 
»ral  Jackson,  the  candidate  of  the  populace,  and 
the  representative  hero  of  the  ignorant  masses. 
Instituted  a new  system  of  administering  th« 


jonx  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


216 


Government  in  wliicli  personal  interests  became 
the  most  important  element,  and  that  or-ganiza- 
tion  and  strategy  were  developed  ■which  have 
since  become  known  and  infamous  under  the 
name  of  the  “ political  machine.” 

While  jMr.  Adams  bore  his  defeat  like  a phil- 
osopher, he  felt  secretly  very  depressed  and  un- 
happy  by  reason  of  it.  He  speaks  of  it  as  leav- 
ing his  “ character  and  reputation  a -wreck,” 
and  says  that  the  “ sun  of  his  political  life  sets 
in  the  deepest  gloom.”  On  January  1,  1829, 
he  -writes  : “ The  year  begins  in  gloom.  My 
wife  had  a sleepless  and  painful  night.  The 
dawn  was  overcast,  and  as  I began  to  write  my 
shaded  lamp  went  out,  self-extinguished.  It 
was  only  for  lack  of  oil,  and  the  notice  of  so 
trivial  an  incident  may  serve  but  to  mark  the 
present  temper  of  my  mind.”  It  is  painful  tc 
behold  a man  of  his  vigor,  activity,  and  courage 
thus  prostrated.  Again  he  writes  : — 

“ Three  days  more  and  I shall  he  restored  to  pri- 
vate life,  and  left  to  an  old  age  of  retirement  though 
certainly  not  of  repose.  I go  into  it  with  a combina- 
tion of  parties  and  public  men  against  my  character 
and  reputation,  such  as  I believe  never  before  was 
exhibited  against  any  man  since  this  Union  existed. 
?osterity  will  scarcely  belie're  it,  but  so  it  is,  that  this 
combination  against  me  has  been  formed  and  is  now 
ixulting  in  triumph  over  me,  for  the  devotion  of  my 


£16 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


life  and  of  all  the  faculties  of  my  soul  to  the  Union, 
and  to  the  improvement,  physical,  moral,  and  intel- 
lectual of  my  country.” 

Melancholy  words  these  to  be  written  by  an 
old  man  who  bad  worked  so  hard  and  been  so 
honest,  and  whose  ambition  had  been  of  the 
kind  that  ennobles  him  who  feels  it ! Could  the 
curtain  of  the  future  have  been  lifted  but  for 
a moment  what  relief  would  the  glimpse  have 
brought  to  his  crushed  and  wearied  spirit.  But 
though  coming  events  may  cast  shadows  before 
them,  they  far  less  often  send  bright  rays  in  ad- 
vance. So  he  now  resolved  “to  go  into  the 
deepest  retirement  and  withdraw  from  all  con- 
nection with  public  affairs.”  Yet  it  was  with 
I’egret  that  he  foretold  this  fate,  and  he  looked 
forward  with  solicitude  to  the  effect  which  such 
a mode  of  life,  newly  entered  upon  at  his  age, 
would  have  upon  his  mind  and  character.  He 
hopes  rather  than  dares  to  predict  that  he  will 
be  provided  “ with  useful  and  profitable  occupa- 
tion, engaging  so  much  of  his  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings that  his  mind  may  not  be  left  to  corrode 
itself.” 

His  return  to  Quincy  held  out  the  less  prom- 
ise of  comfort,  because  the  old  chasm  between 
him  and  the  Federalist  gentlemen  of  Boston  had 
been  lately  reopened.  Certain  malicious  news- 
paper paragraphs,  born  of  the  mischievous  spirit 


JOIIX  QUlXCr  ADAMS. 


211 


3f  the  wretohed  Giles,  had  recently  set  afloat 
some  stories  designed  seriously  to  injure  Mr.  Ad- 
ams. These  were,  substantially,  that  in  1808-9 
he  had  been  convinced  that  some  among  the 
leaders  of  the  Federalist  party  in  New  Eng- 
land were  entertaining  a project  for  separation 
from  the  Union,  that  he  had  feared  that  this 
event  would  be  promoted  by  the  embargo,  that 
he  foresaw  that  the  seceding  portion  wonld  in- 
evitably be  compelled  into  some  sort  of  alliance 
with  Great  Britain,  that  he  suspected  negotia- 
tions to  this  end  to  have  been  already  set  on 
foot,  that  he  thereupon  gave  privately  some 
more  or  less  distinct  intimations  of  these  no- 
tions of  his  to  sundry  prominent  Republicans, 
and  even  to  President  Jefferson.  These  tales, 
much  distorted  from  the  truth  and  exaggerated 
as  usual,  led  to  the  publication  of  an  open  letter, 
in  November,  1828,  addressed  by  thirteen  Fed- 
eralists of  note  in  Massachusetts  to  John  Quincy 
Adams,  demanding  names  and  specifications  and 
the  production  of  evidence.  Mr.  Adams  replied 
brief!}",  with  dignity,  and,  considering  the  cir- 
cumstances, with  good  temper,  stating  fairly  the 
substantial  import  of  what  he  had  really  said, 
aeclaring  that  he  had  never  mentioned  names, 
and  refusing,  for  good  reasons  given,  either  to 
do  so  now  or  to  publish  the  grounds  of  such 
opinions  as  he  had  entertained.  It  was  suffi- 


218 


JOnN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ciently  clear  tliat  he  had  said  nothing  secretly 
which  he  had  reason  to  regret;  and  that  if  he 
Bought  to  shun  the  discussion  opened  by  his  ad- 
versaries, he  was  influenced  by  wise  forbearance, 
and  not  at  all  by  any  fear  of  the  consequences 
to  himself.  A dispassionate  observer  could 
have  seen  that  behind  this  moderate,  rather  de- 
precatory letter  there  was  an  abundant  reserve 
of  controversial  material  held  for  the  moment 
in  check.  But  his  adversaries  were  not  dispas- 
sionate ; on  the  contrary  they  were  greatly  ex- 
cited and  were  honestly  convinced  of  the  perfect 
goodness  of  their  cause.  They  were  men  of 
the  highest  character  in  public  and  private  life, 
deservedly  of  the  best  repute  in  the  community, 
of  unimpeachable  integrity  in  motives  and  deal- 
ings, influential  and  respected,  men  whom  it  was 
impossible  in  New  England  to  treat  with  neg- 
lect or  indifference.  For  this  reason  it  was  only 
the  harder  to  remain  silent  beneath  their  pub- 
lished reproach  when  a refutation  was  possible. 
Hating  Mr.  Adams  with  an  animosity  not  dimin- 
ished by  the  lapse  of  years  since  his  defection 
from  their  party,  strong  in  a consciousness  of 
their  own  standing  before  their  fellow-citizens, 
the  thirteen  notables  responded  with  much  ac- 
rimony to  Mr.  Adams’s  unsatisfactory  letter. 
Thus  persistently  challenged  and  assailed,  at  a 
time  when  his  recent  crushing  political  defeat 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


219 


made  an  attack  upon  him  seem  a little  ungen- 
erous, Mr.  Adams  at  last  went  into  the  fight 
in  earnest.  He  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
thoroughly  right,  and  also  to  have  sufficient 
evidence  to  prove  and  justify  at  least  as  much 
as  he  had  ever  said.  All  this  evidence  he 
brought  together  in  a vindicatory  pamphlet, 
which,  however,  by  the  time  he  had  completed 
it  he  decided  not  to  publish.  But  fortunately 
he  did  not  destroy  it,  and  his  grandson,  in  the 
exercise  of  a wise  discretion,  has  lately  given  it 
to  the  world.  His  foes  never  knew  how  deeply 
they  were  indebted  to  the  self-restraint  which 
induced  him  to  keep  this  formidable  missive 
harmless  in  his  desk.  Full  of  deep  feeling,  yet 
free  from  ebullitions  of  temper,  clear  in  state- 
ment, concise  in  style,  conclusive  in  facts,  un- 
answerable in  argument,  unrelentingly  severe 
in  dealing  with  opponents,  it  is  as  fine  a speci- 
men of  political  controversy  as  exists  in  the 
language.  Its  historical  value  cannot  be  ex- 
aggerated, but  apart  from  this  as  a mere  liter- 
ary production  it  is  admirable.  Happy  were 
the  thirteen  that  they  one  and  all  went  down  to 
their  graves  complaisantly  thinking  that  they 
had  had  the  last  word  in  the  quarrel,  little  sus- 
pecting how  great  was  their  obligation  to  Mr 
Adams  for  having  granted  them  that  privilege. 
One  would  think  that  they  might  have  writhed 


220 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


beneath  their  moss-grown  headstones  on  the  day 
when  his  last  word  at  length  found  public  ut- 
terance, albeit  that  the  controversy  had  then 
become  one  of  the  dusty  tales  of  history.^ 

But  this  task  of  writing  a demolishing  pam- 
phlet against  the  prominent  gentlemen  of  the 
neighborhood  to  which  he  was  about  to  return 
for  his  declining  years,  could  hardly  have  been  a 
grateful  task.  The  passage  from  political  dis- 
aster to  social  enmities  could  not  but  be  painful; 
and  Mr.  Adams  was  probably  never  more  un- 
happy than  at  this  period  of  his  life.  The  re- 
ward which  virtue  was  tendering  to  him  seemed 
mmixed  bitterness. 

Thus  at  the  age  of  sixty-two  years,  Mr.  Ad- 
ams found  himself  that  melancholy  product  of 
the  American  governmental  system  — an  ex- 
President.  At  this  stage  it  would  seem  that  the 
fruit  ought  to  drop  from  the  bough,  no  further 

i It  is  with  great  reluctance  that  these  comments  are  made, 
since  some  persons  may  think  that  they  come  with  ill  grace 
from  one  whose  grandfather  was  one  of  the  thirteen  and  was 
supposed  to  have  drafted  one  or  both  of  their  letters.  Bat 
in  spite  of  the  prejudice  naturally  growing  out  of  this  fact,  a 
thorough  study  of  the  whole  subject  has  convinced  me  that 
Mr.  Adams  was  unquestionably  and  completely  right,  and  I 
have  no  escape  from  saying  so.  Ills  adversaries  had  the  ex 
tuse  of  honesty  in  political  error — an  excuse  which  the  great 
est  and  wisest  men  must  often  fall  back  upon  in  times  of  ho 
party  warfare. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


221 


process  of  development  being  reasonably  prob- 
able for  it.  Yet  Mr.  Adams  had  by  no  means 
reached  this  measure  of  ripeness ; he  still  en- 
joyed abundant  vigor  of  mind  and  body,  and  to 
lapse  into  dignified  decrepitude  was  not  agree- 
able, indeed  was  hardly  possible  for  him.  The 
prospect  gave  him  profound  anxiety  ; he  dreaded 
idleness,  apathy,  and  decay  with  a keen  terror 
which  perhaps  constituted  a sufficient  guaranty 
against  them.  Yet  what  could  he  do  ? It  would 
be  absurd  for  him  now  to  furbish  up  the  rusty 
weapons  of  the  law  and  enter  again  upon  the 
tedious  labor  of  collecting  a clientage.  His 
property  was  barely  sufiicient  to  enable  him  to 
live  respectably,  even  according  to  the  simple 
standard  of  the  time,  and  could  open  to  him  no 
occupation  in  the  w'ay  of  gratifying  unremuner- 
ative  tastes.  In  March,  1828,  he  had  been  ad- 
vised to  use  five  thousand  dollars  in  a Avay  to 
promote  his  reelection.  He  refused  at  once, 
upon  principle  ; but  further  set  forth  “ candidly, 
the  state  of  his  affairs  ” : — 

“ All  my  real  estate  in  Quincy  and  Boston  is  mort- 
gaged for  the  payment  of  my  debts ; the  income  of 
my  whole  private  estate  is  less  than  $6,000  a year, 
and  I am  paying  at  least  two  thousand  of  that  for  in- 
terest on  my  debt.  Finally,  upon  going  out  of  office 
n oue  year  from  this  time,  destitute  of  all  means  of 
icquiring  property,  it  will  only  be  by  the  sacrifice  of 


222 


JJHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


that  which  I now  possess  that  I shall  be  able  to  sup 
port  my  family.” 

At  first  he  plunged  desperately  into  the  Latin 
classics.  He  had  a strong  taste  for  such  read- 
ing, and  he  made  a firm  resolve  to  compel  this 
taste  now  to  stand  him  in  good  stead  in  his  hour 
of  need.  He  courageously  demanded  solace 
from  a pursuit  which  had  yielded  him  pleasure 
enough  in  hours  of  relaxation,  but  which  was 
altogether  inadequate  to  fill  the  huge  vacuum 
now  suddenly  created  in  his  time  and  thoughts. 
There  is  much  pathos  in  this  spectacle  of  the 
old  man  setting  himself  with  ever  so  feeble  a 
weapon,  yet  with  stern  determination,  to  con- 
quer the  cruelty  of  circumstances.  But  he 
knew,  of  course,  that  the  Roman  authors  could 
only  help  him  for  a time,  by  way  of  distraction, 
in  carrying  him  through  a transition  period. 
He  soon  set  more  cheerfully  at  work  upon  a 
memoir  of  his  father,  and  had  also  plans  for, 
writing  a history  of  the  United  States.  Liter- 
ature had  always  possessed  strong  charms  for 
him,  and  he  had  cultivated  it  after  his  usual 
studious  and  conscientious  fashion.  But  his 
style  was  too  often  prolix,  sententious,  and  tur- 
gid — faults  which  marked  nearly  all  the  writ- 
ing done  in  this  country  in  those  days.  The 
world  has  pi'ohably  not  lost  much  by  reason  of 
the  non-completion  of  the  contemplated  vol 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


223 


times.  He  could  have  made  no  other  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  country  at  all  approach- 
ing in  value  or  interest  to  the  Diary,  of  which 
a most  important  part  was  still  to  be  written. 
For  a brief  time  just  now  this  loses  its  historic 
character,  but  makes  up  for  the  loss  by  depicting 
admirably  some  traits  in  the  mental  constitu- 
tion of  the  diarist.  Tales  of  enchantment,  he 
says,  pleased  his  boyhood,  but  “the  humors  of 
Falstaff  hardly  affected  me  at  all.  Bardolph  and 
Pistol  and  Nym  were  personages  quite  unintel- 
ligible to  me ; and  the  lesson  of  Sir  Hugh  Evans 
to  the  boy  Williams  was  quite  too  serious  an  af- 
fair.” In  truth,  no  man  can  ever  have  been 
more  utterly  void  of  a sense  of  humor  or  an  ap- 
preciation of  wit  than  was  Mr.  Adams.  Not  a 
single  instance  of  an  approach  to  either  is  to  be 
found  throughout  the  twelve  volumes  of  his 
Diary.  Not  even  in  the  simple  form  of  the 
“ good  story  ” could  he  find  pleasure,  and  subtler 
delicacies  were  wasted  on  his  well-regulated 
mind  as  dainty  French  dishes  would  be  on  the 
wholesome  palate  of  a day-laborer.  The  books 
which  bore  the  stamp  of  well-established  ap- 
proval, the  acknowledged  classics  of  the  Eng- 
lish, Latin,  and  French  languages  he  read  with 
\ mingled  sense  of  duty  and  of  pleasure,  and 
evidently  with  cultivated  appreciation,  though 
whether  he  would  have  made  an  original  dis- 


224 


JOUN  aUJNCY  ADAMS. 


coveiy  of  tlieir  merits  may  be  doubted.  Oc- 
casionally  be  failed  to  admire  even  those  vob 
umes  which  deserved  admiration,  and  then  with 
characteristic  honesty  he  admitted  the  fact.  He 
tried  Paradise  Lost  ten  times  before  he  could 
get  through  with  it,  and  was  nearly  thirty  years 
old  when  he  first  succeeded  in  reading  it  to  the 
end.  Thereafter  he  became  very  fond  of  it, 
but  plainly  by  an  acquired  taste.  He  tried 
smoking  and  Milton,  he  says,  at  the  same  time, 
in  the  hope  of  discovering  the  “ recondite 
charm  ” in  them  which  so  pleased  his  father. 
He  was  more  easily  successful  with  the  tobacco 
than  with  the  poetry.  Many  another  has  had 
the  like  experience,  but  the  confession  is  not 
always  so  frankly  forthcoming. 

Fate,  however,  had  in  store  for  Mr.  Adams 
labors  to  which  he  was  better  suited  than  those 
of  literatui’e,  and  tasks  to  be  performed  which 
the  nation  could  ill  afford  to  exchange  for  an 
apotheosis  of  our  second  President,  or  even  for 
a respectable  but  probably  not  very  readable 
history.  The  most  brilliant  and  glorious  years 
of  his  career  were  yet  to  be  lived.  He  was  to 
earn  in  his  old  age  a noble  fame  and  distinction 
far  transcending  any  achievement  of  his  jmuth 
and  middle  age,  and  was  to  attain  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  his  fame  after  he  had  left  the  great- 
est office  of  the  Government,  and  during  a pe 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  225 

nod  for  which  presumably  nothing  better  had 
been  allotted  than  that  he  should  tranquilly 
await  the  summons  of  death.  It  is  a striking 
circumstance  that  the  fulhiess  of  greatness  for 
one  who  had  been  Senator,  Minister  to  England, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  President,  remained  to 
be  won  in  the  comparatively  humble  position  of 
% Representative  in  Congress. 

15 


CHAPTER  III. 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 

In  September,  1S30,  Mr.  Adams  notes  in  bis 
Diary  a suggestion  made  to  bim  that  be  might 
if  be  wished  be  elected  to  the  national  House 
of  Representatives  from  the  Plymouth  district. 
The  gentleman  who  threw  out  this  tentative 
proposition,  remarked  that  in  bis  opinion  the 
acceptance  of  this  position  by  an  ex-President 
“instead  of  degrading  the  individual  would 
elevate  the  representative  character.”  Mr.  Ad- 
arns  replied,  that  he  “had  in  that  respect  no 
scruple  whatever.  No  person  could  be  degi’aded 
by  serving  the  people  as  a Representative  in 
Congress.  Nor  in  my  opinion  would  an  ex- 
President  of  the  United  States  be  degraded  by 
serving  as  a selectman  of  his  town,  if  elected 
thereto  by  the  people.”  A few  weeks  later  his 
election  was  accomplished  by  a flattering  vote, 
the  poll  showing  for  him  1817  votes  out  of  2565, 
with  only  373  for  the  next  candidate.  Pie  con- 
tinued thenceforth  to  represent  this  district  un- 
til his  death,  a period  of  about  sixteen  years. 
During  this  time  he  was  occasionally  suggested 


JOIIX  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


227 


as  a candidate  for  the  goTernorship  of  the  State, 
but  was  always  reluctant  to  stand.  The  feeling 
between  the  Freemasons  and  the  anti-Masons 
ran  very  high  for  several  years,  and  once  he  was 
prevailed  upon  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used  by 
the  latter  party.  The  result  was  that  there  was 
no  election  by  the  people  ; and  as  he  had  been 
very  loath  to  enter  the  contest  in  the  beginning, 
he  insisted  upon  withdrawing  from  before  the 
legislature.  We  have  now  therefore  only  to  pur- 
sue his  career  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress. 

Unfortunately,  but  of  obvious  necessity,  it  is 
possible  to  touch  only  upon  the  more  salient 
points  of  this  which  was  really  by  far  the  most 
striking  and  distinguished  portion  of  his  life. 
To  do  more  than  this  would  involve  an  expla- 
nation of  the  politics  of  the  country  and  the 
measures  before  Congress  much  more  elaborate 
than  would  be  possible  in  this  volume.  It  Avill 
be  necessary,  therefore,  to  confine  ourselves  to 
drawing  a picture  of  him  in  his  chai-acter  as  the 
great  combatant  of  Southern  slavery.  In  the 
waging  of  this  mighty  conflict  we  shall  see 
both  his  mind  and  his  character  developing  in 
strength  even  in  these  years  of  his  old  age,  and 
his  traits  standing  forth  in  bolder  relief  than 
ever  before.  In  his  place  on  Uie  floor  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  lie  was  destined  to 
appear  a more  hnpressive  figure  than  in  any 


228 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


of  the  higher  positions  which  he  had  previously 
filled.  There  he  was  to  do  his  greatest  work 
and  to  win  a peculiar  and  distinctive  glory 
which  takes  him  out  of  the  general  throng  even 
of  famous  statesmen  and  entitles  his  name  to 
be  remembered  with  an  especial  reverence.  Ad- 
equately to  sketch  his  achievements,  and  so  to 
do  his  memory  the  honor  which  it  deserves, 
would  require  a pen  as  eloquent  as  has  been 
wielded  by  an 3'^  writer  of  our  language.  I can 
only  attempt  a brief  and  insufficient  narrative. 

In  his  conscientious  way  he  was  faithful  and 
industrious  to  a rare  degree.  He  was  never  ab- 
sent and  seldom  late ; he  bore  unflinchingly  the 
burden  of  severe  committee  work,  and  shirked 
no  toil  on  the  plea  of  age  or  infirmity.  He  at- 
tended closely  to  all  the  business  of  the  House , 
carefully  formed  his  opinions  on  every  question  ; 
never  failed  to  vote  except  for  cause  ; and  always 
had  a sufficient  reason  independent  of  party  al- 
legiance to  sustain  his  vote.  Living  in  the  age 
of  oratory,  he  earned  the  name  of  “ the  old  man 
eloquent.”  Yet  he  was  not  an  orator  in  the 
sense  in  which  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun 
were  orators.  He  was  not  a rhetorician ; he  had 
neither  grace  of  manner  nor  a fine  presence, 
neither  an  imposing  delivery,  nor  even  pleasing 
tones.  On  the  contrarj^,  he  was  exceptionallv 


JOHX  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


229 


lacking  in  all  these  qualities.  He  was  short, 
rotund,  and  bald ; about  the  time  Avhen  he  en- 
tered Congress,  complaints  become  frequent  in 
his  Diary  of  weak  and  inflamed  ejms,  and  soon 
these  organs  became  so  rheumy  that  the  water 
would  trickle  down  his  cheeks  ; a shaking  of  the 
hand  grew  upon  him  to  such  an  extent  that  in 
time  he  had  to  use  artificial  assistance  to  steady 
it  for  writing ; his  voice  was  high,  shrill,  liable 
to  break,  piercing  enough  to  make  itself  heard, 
but  not  agreeable.  This  hardly  seems  the  pict- 
ure of  an  orator;  nor  was  it  to  any  charm  of  el- 
ocution that  he  owed  his  influence,  but  rather  to 
the  fact  that  men  soon  learned  that  what  he  said 
was  always  well  worth  hearing.  When  he  en- 
tered Cons[res3  he  had  been  for  much  more  than 
a third  of  a century  zealously  gathering  knowl- 
edge in  public  affairs,  and  during  his  career  in 
that  body  every  year  swelled  the  already  vast 
accumulation.  Moreover,  listeners  were  always 
sure  to  get  a bold  and  an  honest  utterance  and 
often  pretty  keen  words  from  him,  and  he  never 
spoke  to  an  inattentive  audience  or  to  a thin 
house.  Whether  pleased  or  incensed  by  what 
he  said,  the  Representatives  at  least  always  list- 
ened to  it.  He  was  by  nature  a hard  fighter, 
and  by  the  circumstances  of  his  course  in  Con- 
gress this  quality  was  stimulated  to  such  a de- 
gree that  Parliamentary  history  does  not  show 


230 


JOHN  QUJNCY  ADAMS. 


his  equal  as  a gladiator.  His  power  of  invective 
was  extraordinary,  and  he  was  untiring  and 
merciless  in  his  use  of  it.  Theoretically  he 
disapproved  of  sarcasm,  but  practically  he  could 
not  refrain  from  it.  Men  winced  and  cowered 
before  his  milder  attacks,  became  sometimes 
dumb,  sometimes  furious  with  mad  rage  before 
his  fiercer  assaults.  Such  struggles  evidently 
gave  him  pleasure,  and  there  was  scarce  a back 
in  Congress  that  did  not  at  one  time  or  another 
feel  the  score  of  his  cutting  lash ; though  it  was 
the  Southerners  and  the  Northern  allies  of 
Southerners  whom  chiefly  he  singled  out  for 
torture.  He  was  irritable  and  quick  to  wrath; 
he  himself  constantly  speaks  of  the  infii'mity  of 
his  temper,  and  in  his  many  conflicts  his  prin- 
cipal concern  was  to  keep  it  in  control.  His 
enemies  often  referred  to  it  and  twitted  him 
with  it.  Of  alliances  he  was  careless,  and  friend- 
ships he  had  almost  none.  But  in  the  creation 
of  enmities  he  was  terribly  successful.  Not  so 
much  at  first,  but  increasingly  as  years  went  on, 
a state  of  ceaseless,  vigilant  hostility  became  his 
normal  condition.  From  the  time  wJien  he^airly 
entered  upon  the  long,  struggle  against  slavery, 
he  enjoyed  few  peaceful  days  in  the  House. 
But  he  seemed  to  thrive  upon  the  warfare,  and 
to  be  never  so  well  pleased  as  when  he  was 
bandying  hot  words  with  slave-holders  and  tha 


JOHN  QUJNCY  ADAMS. 


231 


Northern  supporters  of  slave-holders.  When 
the  air  of  the  House  was  thick  with  crimination 
and  abuse  he  seemed  to  suck  in  fresh  vigor  and 
spirit  from  the  hate-laden  atmosphei’e.  When  in- 
vective fell  around  him  in  showers,  he  screamed 
back  his  retaliation  with  untiring  rapidity  and 
marvellous  dexterity  of  aim.  No  odds  could 
appal  him.  With  his  back  set  firm  against  a 
solid  moral  principle,  it  was  his  joy  to  strike 
out  at  a multitude  of  foes.  They  lost  their 
heads  as  well  as  their  tempers,  but  in  the  ex- 
tremest  moments  of  excitement  and  anger  Mr. 
Adams’s  brain  seemed  to  work  with  machine- 
like  coolness  and  accuracy.  With  flushed  face, 
streaming  eyes,  animated  gesticulation,  and 
cracking  voice,  he  always  retained  perfect  mas- 
tery of  all  his  intellectual  faculties.  He  thus 
became  a terrible  antagonist,  whom  all  feared, 
yet  fearing  could  not  refrain  from  attacking,  so 
bitterly  and  incessantly  did  he  choose  to  exert 
his  wonderful  power  of  exasperation.  Few  men 
could  throw  an  opponent  into  wild  blind  fury 
with  such  speed  and  certainty  as  he  could ; and 
he  does  not  conceal  the  malicious  gratification 
which  such  feats  brought  to  him.  A leader  of 
such  fighting  capacity,  so  courageous,  with  such 
a magazine  of  experience  and  information,  and 
with  a character  so  irreproachable,  could  have 
won  brilliant  victories  in  public  life  at  the  head 


232 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


of  even  a small  band  of  devoted  followers.  But 
Mr,  Adams  never  bad  and  apparently  never 
wanted  followers.  Other  prominent  public  men 
were  brought  not  only  into  collision  but  into 
comparison  with  their  contemporaries.  But  Mr. 
Adams’s  individuality  was  so  strong  that  he  can 
be  compared  with  no  one.  It  was  not  an  indi- 
viduality of  genius  nor  to  any  remarkable  extent 
of  mental  qualities  ; but  rather  an  individuality 
of  character.  To  this  fact  is  probably  to  be 
attributed  his  peculiar  solitariness.  Men  touch 
each  other  for  purposes  of  attachment  through 
their  characters  much  more  than  through  their 
minds.  But  few  men,  even  in  agreeing  with  Mr. 
Adams,  felt  themselves  in  sympathy  Avith  him. 
Occasionally  conscience,  or  invincible  logic,  or 
even  policy  and  self-interest,  might  compel  one 
or  another  politician  to  stand  beside  him  in  de- 
bate or  in  voting;  but  no  current  of  fellow- 
feeling  ever  passed  between  such  temporary 
comrades  and  him.  It  was  the  cold  connection 
of  duty  or  of  business.  The  first  instinct  of 
nearly  every  one  Avas  opposition  towards  him  ; 
coalition  might  be  forced  by  circumstances  but 
never  came  by  Abolition.  For  the  purpose  of 
Avinning  immediate  successes  this  Avas  of  course 
a most  unfortunate  condition  of  relationships. 
Yet  it  had  some  compensations : it  left  such 
nifluence  as  Mr.  Adams  could  exert  by  stead 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


23-7 


fastness  and  argument  entirely  unweakened  by 
suspicion  of  hidden  motives  or  personal  ends. 
He  had  the  weight  and  enjoyed  the  respect 
which  a sincerity  beyond  distrust  must  always 
command  in  the  long  run.  Of  this  we  shall  see 
some  striking  instances. 

One  important  limitation,  however,  belongs  tc 
this  statement  of  solitariness.  It  was  confined 
to  his  position  in  Congress.  Outside  of  the  city 
of  Washington  great  numbers  of  the  people, 
especially  in  New  England,  lent  him  a hearty 
support  and  regarded  him  with  friendship  and 
admiration.  These  men  had  strong  convictions 
and  deep  feelings,  and  their  adherence  counted 
for  much,  hloreover,  their  numbers  steadily 
inci’eased,  and  Mr.  Adams  saw  that  he  was  the 
leader  in  a cause  which  engaged  the  sound  sense 
and  the  best  feeling  of  the  intelligent  people  of 
the  country,  and  which  was  steadily  gaining 
ground.  Without  such  encouragement  it  is 
doubtful  whether  even  his  persistence  would 
have  held  out  through  so  long  and  extreme  a 
trial.  The  sense  of  human  fellowship  was  need- 
ful to  him  ; he  could  go  without  it  in  Congress, 
but  he  could  not  have  gone  without  it  alto- 
gether. 

IMr.  Adams  took  his  seat  in  the  House  as  a 
member  of  the  twenty-second  Congress  in  De- 
eember,  1 831,  He  had  been  elected  by  the  Na- 


234 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


tional  Republican,  afterward  better  known  as 
the  Whig  party,  but  one  of  bis  first  acts  was  to 
declare  that  be  would  be  bound  by  no  partisan 
connection,  but  would  in  every  matter  act  inde- 
pendently. This  course  be  regarded  as  a “ duty 
imposed  upon  bim  by  bis  peculiar  position,”  in 
that  be  “ bad  spent  tbe  greatest  portion  of  bis 
life  in  tbe  service  of  tbe  whole  nation  and  liad 
been  honored  with  their  highest  trust.”  Many 
persons  bad  predicted  that  be  would  find  him- 
self subjected  to  embari'assments  and  perhaps  to 
humiliations  by  reason  of  bis  apparent  descent 
in  tbe  scale  of  political  dignities.  He  notes, 
however,  that  be  encountered  no  annoyance  on 
this  score,  but  on  tbe  contrary  be  was  rather 
treated  with  an  especial  respect.  He  was  made 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Manufactures,  a 
laborious  as  well  as  an  important  and  bonoi’- 
able  position  at  all  times,  and  especially  so  at 
this  juncture  when  tbe  rebellious  mutterings 
of  South  Carolina  against  tbe  protective  tariff 
were  already  to  be  beard  rolling  and  swelling 
like  portentous  thunder  from  tbe  fiery  Southern 
regions.  He  would  have  preferred  to  exchange 
this  post  for  a place  upon  tbe  Committee  on 
Foreign  Affairs,  for  whose  business  be  felt  more 
fitted.  But  be  was  told  that  in  tbe  impending 
crisis  bis  ability,  autliority,  and  prestige  were 
all  likely  to  be  needed  in  the  place  allotted  to 
him  to  aid  in  the  salvation  of  the  country. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


235 


The  nullification  chapter  of  our  history  can- 
not here  be  entered  upon  at  length,  and  Mr. 
Adams’s  connection  with  it  must  be  very  shortlji 
stated.  At  the  first  meeting  of  his  committee 
he  remarks : “ A I’eduction  of  the  duties  upon 
many  of  the  articles  in  the  tariff  was  under- 
stood by  all  to  be  the  object  to  be  effected ; ” 
and  a little  later  he  said  that  he  should  be  dis- 
posed to  give  such  aid  as  he  could  to  any  plan 
for  this  reduction  which  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment should  devise.  “He  should  certainly  not 
consent  to  sacrifice  the  manufacturing  interest,” 
he  said,  “ but  something  of  concession  would  be 
due  from  that  interest  to  appease  the  discon- 
tents of  the  South.”  He  was  in  a reasonable 
frame  of  mind ; but  unfortunately  other  people 
were  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  reasonable.  When 
Jackson’s  message  of  December  4,  1832,  was 
promulgated,  showing  a disposition  to  do  for 
South  Carolina  pretty  much  all  that  she  de- 
manded, Mr.  Adams  was  bitterly  indignant. 
The  message,  he  said,  “ recommends  a total 
change  in  the  policy  of  the  Union  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Bank,  manufactures,  internal  im- 
provement, and  the  public  lands.  It  goes  to 
dissolve  the  Union  into  its  original  elements, 
and  is  in  substance  a complete  surrender  to  the 
nullifiers  of  South  Carolina.”  When,  somewhat 
later  on,  the  President  lost  his  temper  and  flamed 


236 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


out  in  bis  famous  proclamation  to  meet  tbe  nul 
lification  ordinance,  he  spoke  in  tones  more 
pleasing  to  Mr.  Adams.  But  tbe  ultimate  com- 
promise which  disposed  of  the  temporary  dis- 
sension without  permanently  settling  the  funda- 
mental question  of  the  constitutional  right  of 
nullification,  was  extremely  distasteful  to  him. 
He  was  utterly  opposed  to  the  concessions  which 
were  made  while  South  Carolina  still  remained 
contumacious.  He  was  for  compelling  her  to 
retire  altogether  from  her  rebellious  position 
and  to  repeal  her  unconstitutional  enactments 
wholly  and  unconditionally,  before  one  jot 
should  be  abated  from  the  obnoxious  duties. 
When  the  bill  for  the  modification  of  the  tarilf 
was  under  debate,  he  moved  to  strike  out  all 
but  the  enacting  clause,  and  supported  his  mo- 
tion in  a long  speech,  insisting  that  no  tariff 
ought  to  pass  until  it  was  known  “ whether 
there  was  any  measure  by  which  a State  could 
defeat  the  laws  of  the  Union.”  In  a minority 
report  from  his  own  committee  he  strongly  cen- 
sured the  policy  of  the  Administration.  He  was 
for  meeting,  fighting  out,  and  determining  at 
this  crisis  the  whole  doctrine  of  state  rights  and 
secession.  “ One  particle  of  compromise,”  he 
said,  with  what  truth  events  have  since  shown 
clearly  enough,  would  “ directly  lead  to  the 
final  and  irretrievable  dissolution  of  tbe  Union. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


237 


fn  his  usual  strong  and  thorough-going  fashion 
he  was  for  persisting  in  the  vigorous  and  spirited 
measures,  the  mere  brief  declaration  of  which, 
though  so  quickly  receded  from,  won  for  Jack- 
son  a measure  of  credit  greater  than  he  de- 
served. Jackson  was  thrown  into  a great  rage 
by  the  threats  of  South  Carolina,  and  replied 
to  them  with  the  same  prompt  wrath  with 
which  he  had  sometimes  resented  insults  from 
individuals.  But  in  his  cool  inner  mind  he  was 
in  sympathy  with  the  demands  which  that  State 
preferred,  and  though  undoubtedly  he  would 
have  fought  her,  had  the  dispute  been  forced  to 
that  pass,  yet  he  was  quite  willing  to  make  con- 
cessions, which  were  in  fact  in  consonance  with 
his  own  views  as  well  as  with  hers,  in  order  to 
avoid  that  sad  conclusion.  He  was  satisfied  to 
have  the  instant  emergency  pass  over  in  a man- 
ner rendered  superficially  creditable  to  himself 
by  his  outburst  of  temper,  under  cover  of  which 
he  sacrificed  the  substantial  matter  of  principle 
without  a qualm.  He  shook  his  fist  and  shouted 
defiance  in  the  face  of  the  nullifiers,  while  Mr. 
Clay  smuggled  a comfortable  concession  into 
their  pockets.  Jackson,  notwithstanding  his 
belligerent  attitude,  did  all  he  could  to  help 
Clay  and  was  well  pleased  with  the  result.  Mr. 
iVdams  was  not.  He  watched  the  disingenuous 
game  with  disgust.  It  is  certain  that  if  he  had 

O O 


238 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Btill  been  in  the  White  House,  the  matter  would 
have  had  a very  different  ending,  bloodier,  it 
may  be,  and  more  painful,  but  much  more  con- 
clusive. 

For  the  most  part  Mr.  Adams  found  himself 
in  opposition  to  President  Jackson’s  Adminis- 
tration. This  was  not  attributable  to  any  sense 
of  personal  hostility  towards  a successful  rival, 
but  to  an  inevitable  antipathy  towards  the 
measures,  methods,  and  ways  adopted  by  the 
General  so  unfortunately  transferred  to  civil 
life.  Few  intelligent  persons,  and  none  having 
the  statesman  habit  of  mind,  befriended  the 
reckless,  violent,  eminently  unstatesmanlike 
President.  His  ultimate  weakness  in  the  nulli- 
fication matter,  his  opposition  to  internal  im- 
provements, his  policy  of  sacrificing  the  public 
lands  to  individual  speculators,  his  warfare 
against  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  conducted 
by  methods  the  most  unjustifiable,  the  transac- 
tion of  the  removal  of  the  deposits  so  disreputa- 
ble and  injurious  in  all  its  details,  the  importa- 
tion of  Mrs.  Eaton’s  visiting  list  into  the  politics 
and  government  of  the  country,  the  dismissal 
of  the  oldest  and  best  public  servants  as  a part 
of  the  nefarious  system  of  using  public  offices 
as  rewards  for  political  aid  and  personal  adher 
ence,  the  formation  from  base  ingredients  of  the 
ignoble  “ Kitchen  Cabinet,”  — all  these  doings 


JOUK  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


239 


iogetlier  "svltli  mucli  more  of  the  like  sort,  con- 
stituted a career  wliicli  could  only  seem  blunder- 
ing, undignified,  and  dislionorable  in  tbe  eyes  of 
a man  like  Mr.  Adams,  who  regarded  states- 
manship with  tbe  reverence  due  to  the  noblest 
of  human  callings. 

Right  as  Mr.  Adams  was  generally  in  his  op- 
position to  Jackson,  yet  once  he  deserves  credit 
for  the  contrary  course.  This  was  in  the  matter 
of  our  relations  with  France.  The  treaty  of  1831 
secured  to  this  country  an  indemnity  of  $5,000,- 
000,  which,  however,  it  had  never  been  possible 
to  collect.  This  procrastination  raised  Jackson’s 
ever  ready  ire,  and  casting  to  the  winds  any 
further  dunning,  he  resolved  either  to  have 
the  money  or  to  fight  for  it.  He  sent  a mes- 
sage to  Congress,  recommending  that  if  France 
should  not  promptly  settle  the  account,  letters 
of  marque  and  reprisal  against  her  commerce 
should  be  issued.  He  ordered  Edward  Living- 
ston, minister  at  Paris,  to  demand  his  pass^ 
ports  and  cross  over  to  London.  These  emi- 
nently proper  and  ultimately  effectual  measures 
alai’ined  the  large  party  of  the  timid ; and  the 
General  found  himself  in  danger  of  extensive 
desertions  even  on  the  part  of  his  usual  support- 
ers. But  as  once  before  in  a season  of  his  dire 
extremity  his  courage  and  vigor  had  brought 
the  potent  aid  of  Mr.  Adams  to  his  side,  so  now 


240 


JOUN  QUINCY  -iD.J.lA'?. 


again  lie  came  under  a heavy  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  same  champion.  Mr.  Adams  stood  by 
him  with  generous  gallantry,  and  by  a telling 
speech  in  the  House  probably  saved  him  from 
serious  humiliation  and  even  disaster.  The 
President’s  style  of  dealing  had  roused  Mr.  Ad- 
ams’s spirit,  and  he  spoke  with  a fire  and  vehe- 
mence which  accomplished  the  unusual  feat  of 
changing  the  predisposed  minds  of  men  too  fa- 
miliar with  speech-making  to  be  often  much  in- 
fluenced by  it  in  the  practical  matter  of  voting, 
ble  thought  at  the  time  that  the  success  of  this 
speech,  brilliant  as  it  appeared,  was  not  unlikely 
to  result  in  his  political  ruin.  Jackson  would 
befriend  and  reward  his  thorough-going  parti- 
sans at  any  cost  to  his  own  conscience  or  the 
public  welfare  ; but  the  exceptional  aid,  ten- 
dered not  from  a sense  of  personal  fealty  to  him- 
self, but  simply  from  the  motive  of  aiding  the 
right  cause  happening  in  the  especial  instance 
to  have  been  espoused  by  him,  never  won  from 
him  any  token  of  regard.  In  November,  1837, 
jMr.  Adams,  speaking  of  his  personal  isolations 
with  the  President,  said  : — 

“ Though  I had  served  liiin  more  than  any  other 
living  man  ever  did,  and  though  I supported  his  Ad- 
ministration at  the  hazard  of  my  own  political  de- 
struction, and  effected  for  him  at  a moment  when  hij 
own  friends  were  deserting  him  what  no  other  menj 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


241 


oer  of  Congress  ever  accomplished  for  him  — an 
unanimous  vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
support  him  in  his  quarrel  with  France;  though  I 
supported  him  in  other  very  critical  periods  of  his  Ad- 
ministration, my  return  from  him  was  insult,  indig- 
nity, and  slander.” 

Antipathy  had  at  last  become  the  definitive 
condition  of  these  two  men  — antipathy  both 
political  and  personal.  At  one  time  a singular 
effort  to  reconcile  them — probably  though  not 
certainly  undertaken  with  the  knowledge  of 
Jackson  — was  made  by  Richard  hi.  Johnson. 
This  occurred  shortly  before  the  inauguration 
of  the  war  conducted  by  the  President  against 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States;  and  judging  by 
the  I’est  of  Jackson’s  behavior  at  this  period, 
there  was  probably  at  least  as  much  of  calcula- 
tion in  his  motives,  if  in  fact  he  was  cognizant 
of  Johnson’s  approaches,  as  there  was  of  any 
real  desi.''  to  reestablish  the  bygone  relation  of 
honorable  friendship.  To  the  advances  thus 
piade  Mr.  Adams  replied  a little  coldly,  not 
quite  repellently,  that  Jackson,  having  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  suspension  of  personal  inter- 
course, must  now  be  undisguisedly  the  active 
party  in  renewing  it.  At  the  same  time  he  pro- 
fessed himself  “ willing  to  receive  in  a spirit  of 
conciliation  any  advance  which  in  that  spirit 
General  Jackson  might  make.”  But  nothing 
16 


242 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


came  of  this  intrinsically  hopeless  attempt.  On 
the  contrary  the  two  drew  rapidly  and  more 
widely  apart,  and  entertained  concerning  each 
other  opinions  which  grew  steadily  more  un 
favorable,  and  upon  Adams’s  part  more  con- 
temptuous, as  time  went  on. 

Fifteen  months  later  General  Jackson  made 
his  visit  to  Boston,  and  it  was  proposed  that 
Harvard  College  should  confer  upon  him  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  The  absurdity  of 
the  act,  considered  simply  in  itself,  was  admit- 
ted by  all.  But  the  argument  in  its  favor  was 
based  upon  the  established  usage  of  the  College 
as  towards  all  other  Presidents,  so  that  its  omis- 
sion in  this  case  might  seem  a personal  slight. 
Mr.  Adams,  being  at  the  time  a member  of  the 
Board  of  Overseers,  strongly  opposed  the  prop- 
osition, but  of  course  in  vain.  All  that  he  could 
do  was,  for  his  own  individual  part,  to  refuse  to 
be  present  at  the  conferring  of  the  degree,  giv- 
ing as  the  minor  reason  for  his  absence,  that  ho 
could  hold  no  friendly  intercourse  with  the  Pres- 
ident, but  for  the  major  reason  that  “independ- 
ent of  that,  as  myself  an  affectionate  child  of 
our  Alma  Mater,  I would  not  be  present  to  wit- 
ness her  disgrace  in  confen-ing  her  highest  lit- 
erary honors  upon  a barbarian  who  could  not 
write  a sentence  of  grammar  and  hardly  conld 
spell  his  own  name.”  “ A Doctorate  of  Laws,’ 


JOII.X  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


243 


be  said,  “ for  which  an  apology  was  necessary, 
was  a cheap  honoi  and  ...  a sycophantic  com- 
pliment.” After  tlie  deed  was  done,  he  used  to 
amuse  himself  by  speaking  of  “ Doctor  Andrew 
Jackson.”  This  same  eastern  tour  of  Jackson’s 
called  forth  many  other  expressions  of  bitter 
sarcasm  from  Adams.  The  President  was  ill 
and  unable  to  carry  out  the  programme  of  en- 
tertainment and  exhibition  prepared  for  him : 
whereupon  Mr.  Adams  remarks  : — 

“ I believe  much  of  his  debility  is  politic.  . . . He 
is  one  of  our  tribe  of  great  men  who  turn  disease  to 
commodity,  like  John  Eandolpli,  who  for  forty  years 
was  alw'ays  dying.  Jackson,  ever  since  he  became  a 
mark  of  public  attention,  has  been  doing  the  same 
thing.  . . . lie  is  now  alternately  giving  out  his 
chronic  diarrhoea  and  making  Warren  bleed  him  for  a 
pleurisy,  and  posting  to  Cambridge  for  a doctorate  of 
laws ; mounting  the  monument  of  Bunker’s  Hill  to 
hear  a fulsome  address  and  receive  tw’o  cannon  balls 
from  Edward  Everett,”  etc.  “Four  fifths  of  his  sick- 
ness is  trickery,  and  the  other  fifth  mere  fatigue.” 

This  sounds,  it  must  be  confessed,  a trifle 
rancorous ; but  Adams  had  great  excuse  for 
nourishing  rancor  towards  Jackson. 

It  is  time,  however,  to  return  to  the  House 
jf  Representatives.  It  wms  not  by  bearing  his 
share  in  the  ordinary  work  of  that  body,  im 
LOi  tant  or  exciting  as  that  might  at  one  time  or 


244 


JOHN  QHINCr  ADA. US. 


anotlior  liappen  to  be,  that  Mr.  Adams  was  to 
win  in  Congress  that  reputation  which  has 
been  already  described  as  far  overshadowing  all 
his  previous  career.  A special  task  and  a pe- 
culiar mission  were  before  him.  It  was  a part 
of  his  destiny  to  become  the  champion  of  the 
anti-slavery  cause  in  the  national  legislature. 
Almost  the  first  thing  which  he  did  after  he 
had  taken  his  seat  in  Congress  was  to  present 
“fifteen  petitions  signed  numerously  by  citizens 
of  Pennsylvania,  praying  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.”  He  simply  moved  their  reference 
to  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia, 
declaring  that  he  should  not  support  that  part 
of  the  petition  Avhich  prayed  for  abolition  in 
the  District.  The  time  had  not  yet  come  when 
the  Soirtli  felt  much  anxiety  at  such  manifesta- 
tionsi  and  these  first  stones  were  dropped  into 
the  pool  without  stirring  a ripple  on  the  sur- 
face. For  about  four  years  more  we  hear  little 
in  the  Diary  concerning  slavery.  It  was  not  until 
1835,  when  the  annexation  of  Texas  began  to  be 
mooted,  that  the  North  fairly  took  the  alarm, 
and  the  irrepressible  conflict  began  to  develop. 
Tlien  at  once  Ave  find  Mr.  Adams  at  the  front. 
That  he  had  ahvays  cherished  an  abhorrence  of 
slavery  and  a bitter  antipathy  to  slave-holders 
is  a class,  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  many 


JOIIX  Q.UIXCY  ADA:iIS. 


245 


chance  remarks  scattered  through  his  Diary 
from  early  years.  Now  that  a great  question, 
vitally  affecting  the  slave  power,  divided  the 
country  into  parties  and  inaugurated  the  strug- 
gle which  never  again  slept  until  it  was  settled 
forever  by  the  result  of  the  civil  war,  ]\Ir.  Ad- 
ams at  once  assumed  the  function  of  leader. 
His  position  should  be  clearly  understood ; for 
in  the  vast  labor  which  lay  before  the  abolition 
party  different  tasks  fell  to  different  men.  Mr. 
Adams  assumed  to  be  neither  an  agitator  nor 
a reformer  ; by  necessity  of  character,  training, 
fitness,  and  official  position,  he  was  a legislator 
and  statesman.  The  task  wbTch' accident  or 
destiny  allotted  to  him,  was  neither  to  preach 
among  the  people  a crusade  against  slavery,  nor 
to  devise  and  keep  in  action  the  thousand  re- 
sources which  busy  men  throughout  the  country 
were  constantly  multiplying  for  the  purpose  of 
spreading  and  increasing  a popular  hostility 
towards  the  great  “ institution.”  Every  great 
cause  has  need  of  its  fanatics,  its  vanguard  to 
keep  far  in  advance  of  what  is  for  the  time 
reasonable  and  possible;  it  has  not  less  need 
of  the  wiser  and  cooler  heads  to  discipline  and 
control  the  great  mass  which  is  set  in  motion 
by  the  reckless  forerunners,  to  see  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  that  which  the  present  circum- 
stances and  development  of  the  movement  al- 


246 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


low  to  be  accomplished.  It  fell  to  Mr.  Adaina 
to  direct  the  assault  against  the  outworks  which 
were  then  vulnerable,  aud  to  see  that  the  force 
then  possessed  by  the  movement  was  put  to 
such  uses  as  Avould  insure  definite  results  in- 
stead of  being  wasted  in  endeavors  which  as 
yet  were  impossible  of  achievement.  Drawing 
his  duty  from  his  situation  and  surroundings, 
he  left  to  others,  to  younger  men  and  more 
rhetorical  natures,  outside  the  walls  of  Congress, 
the  business  of  tiring  the  people  and  stirring 
popular  opinion  and  sympathy.  He  was  set  to 
do  that  portion  of  the  work  of  abolition  which 
was  to  be  done  in  Congress,  to  encounter  the 
mighty  efforts  which  were  made  to  stifle  the 
great  humanitarian  cry  in  the  halls  of  the  na- 
tional legislature.  This  was  quite  as  much  as 
one  man  was  equal  to;  in  fact,  it  is  certain  that 
no  one  then  in  public  life  except  Mr.  Adams 
could  have  done  it  effectually.  So  obvious  is 
this  that  one  cannot  help  wondering  what  would 
have  befallen  the  cause,  had  he  not  beeir  just 
where  he  was  to  forward  it  in  just  the  way  that 
he  did.  It  is  only  another  among  the  many 
mstairces  of  the  need  surely  finding  the  man. 
His  qualifications  were  unique ; his  ability,  his 
knowledge,  his  prestige  and  authority,  his  high 
personal  character,  his  persistence  and  coui-age 
his  combativeness  stimulated  by  an  acrimoni 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


247 


ous  temper  but  checked  by  a sound  judgment, 
his  merciless  power  of  invective,  his  indepen- 
dence and  carelessness  of  applause  or  vilification, 
friendship  or  enmity,  constituted  him  an  oppo- 
nent fully  equal  to  the  enormous  odds  which 
the  slave-holding  interest  arrayed  against  him. 
A like  moral  and  mental  fitness  was  to  be 
found  in  no  one  else.  Numbers  could  not  over- 
awe him,  nor  loneliness  dispirit  him.  He  was 
probably  the  most  formidable  fighter  in  debate 
of  whom  parliamentary  records  preserve  the 
memory.  The  hostility  which  he  encountered 
beggars  description  ; the  English  language  was 
deficient  in  adequate  words  of  virulence  and 
contempt  to  express  the  feelings  which  were 
entertained  towards  him.  At  home  he  had 
not  the  countenance  of  that  class  in  society  to 
which  he  naturally  belonged.  A second  time 
he  found  the  chief  part  of  the  gentlemen  of 
Boston  and  its  vicinity,  the  leading  lawyers,  the 
rich  merchants,  the  successful  manufacturers, 
not  only  opposed  to  him,  but  entertaining  to- 
wards him  sentiments  of  personal  dislike  and 
even  vindictiveness.  This  stratum  of  the  com- 
munity, having  a natural  distaste  for  disquieting 
agitation  and  influenced  by  class  feeling  — the 
gentlemen  of  the  North  symoathizing  with  the 
“aristocracy”  of  the  South, — could  not  make 
wmmon  cause  with  anti-slavery  people.  For- 


248 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


tunately,  liowever,  Mr.  Adams  was  returned  by 
a country  district  where  the  old  Puritan  in- 
stincts were  still  strong.  The  intelligence  and 
free  spirit  of  New  England  were  at  his  back,  and 
were  fairly  represented  by  him ; in  spite  of  high- 
bred disfavor  they  carried  him  gallantly  through 
the  long  struggle.  The  people  of  the  Pljnuouth 
District  sent  him  back  to  the  House  every  two 
years  from  the  time  of  his  first  election  to  the 
year  of  his  death,  and  the  disgust  of  the  gentle- 
men of  Boston  was  after  all  of  trifling  conse- 
quence to  him  and  of  no  serious  influence  upon 
the  course  of  history.  The  old  New  England 
instinct  was  in  him  as  it  was  in  the  mass  of  tlie 
people ; that  instinct  made  him  the  real  ex- 
ponent of  NeAV  England  thought,  belief,  and 
feeling,  and  that  same  instinct  made  the  great 
body  of  voters  stand  by  him  with  unswerving 
constancy.  When  his  fellow  Representatives, 
almost  to  a man,  deserted  him,  he  was  sus- 
tained by  many  a token  of  sympathy  and  admi- 
ration coming  from  among  the  people  at  large. 
Time  and  the  history  of  the  United  States  have 
been  his  potent  vindicators.  The  conservative, 
conscienceless  respectability  of  wealth  '>°-as,  as 
is  usually  the  case  with  it  in  the  annals  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  quite  in  the  wrong  and  pre- 
destined to  well-merited  defeat.  It  adds  to  the 
honor  due  to  Mr.  Adams  that  his  sense  of  right 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


249 


was  true  enough,  and  that  his  vision  was  clear 
enough  to  lead  him  out  of  that  strong  thraldom 
which  class  feelings,  traditions,  and  comradeship 
are  wont  to  exercise. 

But  it  is  time  to  resume  the  narrative  and  to 
let  jMr.  Adams’s  acts,  — of  which  after  all  it  is 
possible  to  give  only  the  briefest  sketch,  select- 
ing a few  of  the  more  striking  incidents,  — tell 
the  tale  of  bis  Congressional  life. 

On  February  14,  1835,  IMr.  Adams  again  pre- 
sented two  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  without  giving 
rise  to  much  excitement.  The  fusillade  was, 
however,  getting  too  thick  and  fast  to  be  en- 
dured longer  with  indifference  by  the  impatient 
Southerners.  At  the  next  session  of  Congress 
they  concluded  to  try  to  stop  it,  and  their  in- 
genious scheme  was  to  make  Congress  shot- 
proof,  so  to  speak,  against  such  missiles.  On 
January  4,  1836,  Mr.  Adams  presented  an  abo- 
lition petition  couched  in  the  usual  form,  and 
moved  that  it  be  laid  on  the  table,  as  others  like 
it  had  lately  been.  But  in  a moment  IMr.  Glas- 
cock, of  Georgia,  moved  that  the  petition  be 
not  received.  Debate  sprang  up  on  a point  of 
order,  and  two  days  later,  before  the  question 
of  reception  was  determined,  a resolution  was 
offered  by  IMr.  Jarvis,  of  IMaine,  declaring  that 
the  House  would  not  entertain  any  petitions  for 


250 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. This  resolution  vras  supported  on  the 
ground  that  Congress  had  no  constitutional 
power  in  the  premises.  Some  days  later,  Jan- 
uary 18,  1836,  before  any  final  action  had  been 
reached  upon  this  proposition,  Mr,  Adams  pre- 
sented some  more  abolition  petitions,  one  of 
them  signed  by  “ one  hundred  and  forty-eight 
ladies,  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts ; for,  I said,  I had  not  yet  brought  my- 
self to  doubt  whether  females  were  citizens.” 
The  usual  motion  not  to  receive  was  made,  and 
then  a new  device  was  resorted  to  in  the  shape 
of  a motion  that  the  motion  not  to  receive  be 
laid  on  the  table. 

On  February  8,  1836,  tliis  novel  scheme  for 
shutting  off  petitions  against  slavery  immedi- 
ately upon  their  presentation  was  referred  to 
a select  committee  of  which  Mr.  Pinckney  was 
chairman.  On  May  18  this  committee  reported 
in  substance : 1.  That  Congress  had  no  power 
to  interfere  with  slavery  in  any  State ; 2.  That 
Congr^s  ought  not  to  interfere  with  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  ; 8.  That  whereas 
the  agitation  of  the  subject  was  disquieting  and 
objectionable,  “ all  petitions,  memorials,  resolu- 
tions or  papers,  relating  in  any  way  or  to  any 
extent  whatsoever  to  the  subject  of  slavery  or 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being 


jonx  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


251 


either  printed  or  referred,  be  laid  upon  the 
table,  and  that  no  further  action  whatever  shall 
be  had  thereon.’’  When  it  came  to  taking  a 
vote  upon  this  report  a division  of  the  question 
was  called  for,  and  the  yeas  and  nays  were 
ordered.  The  first  resolution  was  then  read, 
whereupon  Mr.  Adams  at  once  rose  and  pledged 
himself,  if  the  House  would  allow  him  five  min- 
utes time,  to  prove  it  to  be  false.  But  cries  of 
“ order  ” resounded ; he  was  compelled  to  take 
his  seat  and  the  resolution  was  adopted  by  182 
to  9.  Upon  the  second  resolution  he  asked  to 
be  excused  from  voting,  and  his  name  was 
passed  in  the  call.  The  third  resolution  with 
its  preamble  was  then  read,  and  Mr.  Adams,  so 
soon  as  his  name  was  called,  rose  and  said  : “ I 
hold  the  resolution  to  be  a direct  violation  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  rules 
of  this  House,  and  the  rights  of  my  constit- 
uents.” He  was  interrupted  by  shrieks  of 
“ order  ” resounding  on  every  side  ; but  he  only 
spoke  the  louder  and  obstinately  finished  his 
sentence  before  resuming  his  seat.  The  resolu- 
tion was  of  course  agreed  to,  the  vote  standing 
117  to  68.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  fa- 
mous “ gag  ” which  became  and  long  remained 
— afterward  in  a worse  shape  — a standing 
rule  of  the  House.  Regularly  in  each  new  Con- 
gress when  the  adoption  of  rules  came  up,  Mr. 


252 


JOnX  auIXCY  ADAMS. 


Adams  moved  to  rescind  tlie  “ gag ; ” but  foi 
many  years  bis  motions  continued  to  be  voted 
down,  as  a matter  of  course.  Its  imposition  was 
clearly  a mistake  on  tbe  part  of  the  slave-hold- 
ing party ; free  debate  would  almost  surely  have 
hurt  them  less  than  this  interference  rvith  the 
freedom  of  petition.  They  had  assumed  an  un- 
tenable position.  Henceforth,  as  the  persistent 
advocate  of  the  right  of  petition,  Mr.  Adams 
had  a support  among  the  people  at  large  vastly 
greater  than  he  could  have  enjoyed  as  the 
opponent  of  slavery.  As  his  adversaries  had 
shaped  the  issue  he  was  predestined  to  victory 
in  a free  country. 

A similar  scene  was  enacted  on  December  21 
and  22, 1837.  A “ gag  ” or  “ speech-smothering  ” 
resolution  being  then  again  before  the  House, 
IMr.  Adams,  when  his  name  was  called  in  the 
taking  of  the  vote,  cried  out  “ amidst  a perfect 
war-whoop  of  ‘order:  ’ ‘ I hold  the  resolution  to 
be  a violation  of  the  Constitution,  of  the  right 
of  petition  of  my  constituents  and  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  and  of  my  right  to  free- 
dom of  speech  as  a member  of  tliis  House.’  ” 
Afterward,  in  reading  over  the  names  of  mem- 
bers who  had  voted,  the  clerk  omitted  that  of 
Mr.  Adams,  this  utterance  of  his  not  having 
constituted  a vote.  Mr.  Adams  called  attention 
to  the  omission.  The  clerk,  by  direction  of  th« 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


253 


Speaker,  tkereupon  called  liis  name.  His  only 
reply  was  by  a motion  that  his  answer  as  al- 
ready made  should  be  entered  on  the  Journal. 
The  Speaker  said  that  this  motion  was  not  in 
order.  Mr.  Adams,  resolute  to  get  upon  the  rec- 
ord, requested  that  his  motion  with  the  Speak- 
ei'’s  decision  that  it  was  not  in  order  might  be 
entered  on  the  Journal.  The  next  da}^  finding 
that  this  entry  had  not  been  made  in  proper 
shape,  he  brought  up  the  matter  again.  One  of 
his  opponents  made  a false  step,  and  Mr.  Adams 
“ bantered  him  ” upon  it  until  the  other  was 
provoked  into  saying  that,  “if  the  question  ever 
came  to  the  issue  of  war,  the  Southern  people 
would  march  into  New  England  and  conquer 
it.”  Mr.  Adams  replied  that  no  doubt  they 
would  if  they  could ; that  he  entered  his  resolu- 
tion upon  the  Journal  because  he  was  resolved 
that  his  opponent's  “ name  should  go  down  to 
posterity  damned  to  everlasting  fame.”  No  one 
ever  gained  much  in  a war  of  words  with  this 
ever-ready  and  merciless  tongue. 

Mr.  Adams,  'having  soon  become  known  to  all 
the  nation  as  the  indomitable  presenter  of  anti- 
slavery  petitions,  quickly  found  that  great  num- 
bers of  people  were  ready  to  keep  him  busy  in 
this  trying  task.  For  a long  while  it  was  al- 
most as  much  as  he  could  accomplish  to  receive, 
sort,  schedule,  and  present  the  infinite  number 


254 


JOHN  QOJ.\CY  ADA.irS. 


of  petitions  and  meraoi’ials  wliicli  came'  to  him 
praying  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  of  tlie 
slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  op- 
posing the  annexation  of  Texas.  It  was  an  oc- 
cupation not  altogether  devoid  even  of  physical 
danger,  and  calling  for  an  amount  of  moral 
courage  greater  than  it  is  now  easy  to  appre- 
ciate. It  is  the  incipient  stage  of  such  a con- 
flict that  tests  the  mettle  of  tlie  little  band  of 
innovators.  When  it  grows  into  a great  party 
question  much  less  courage  is  demanded.  The 
mere  presentation  of  an  odious  petition  may 
seem  in  itself  to  be  a simple  task ; but  to  find 
himself  in  a constant  state  of  antagonism  to  a 
powerful,  active,  and  vindictive  majority  in  a 
debating  body,  constituted  of  such  material  as 
then  made  up  the  House  of  Representatives, 
wore  hardly  even  upon  the  iron  temper  and  in- 
flexible disposition  of  Mr.  Adams.  “ The  most 
insignificant  error  of  conduct  in  me  at  this 
time,”  he  writes  in  April,  1837,  “ would  be  my 
irredeemable  ruin  in  this  world  ; and  both  the 
ruling  political  parties  are  watching  witli  in- 
tense anxiety  for  some  overt  act  by  me  to  set 
the  whole  pack  of  their  hireling  presses  upon 
me.”  But  amid  the  host  of  foes,  and  aware 
that  he  could  count  upon  the  aid  of  scarcely  a 
single  hearty  and  daring  friend,  he  labored  only 
ihe  more  earnestly.  The  severe  pressure  against 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  255 

him  begat  only  the  more  severe  counter  pres- 
sure upon  his  part. 

Besides  these  natural  and  legitimate  difficul- 
ties, IMr.  Adams  was  further  in  the  embarrass- 
ing position  of  one  who  has  to  fear  as  much 
from  the  imprudence  of  allies  as  from  open  hos- 
tility of  antagonists,  and  he  was  often  compelled 
to  guard  against  a peculiar  risk  coming  from 
his  very  coadjutors  in  the  great  cause.  The  ex- 
tremists who  had  cast  aside  all  regard  for  what 
was  practicable,  and  who  utterly  scorned  to  con- 
sider the  feasibility  or  the  consequences  of  meas- 
ures which  seemed  to  them  to  be  correct  as  ab- 
stract propositions  of  morality,  were  constantly 
urging  him  to  action  which  would  only  have 
destroyed  him  forever  in  political  life,  would 
have  stripped  him  of  his  influence,  exiled  him 
from  that  position  in  Congress  where  he  could 
render  the  most  efficient  service  that  was  in 
him,  and  left  him  naked  of  all  usefulness  and 
utterly  helpless  to  continue  that  essential  por- 
tion of  the  labor  which  could  be  conducted  by 
no  one  else.  “ The  abolitionists  generally,”  he 
said,  “are  constantly  urging  me  to  indiscreet 
movements,  which  would  ruin  me,  and  weaken 
and  not  strengthen  their  cause.”  His  family, 
on  the  other  hand,  sought  to  restrain  him  from 
ill  connection  with  'these  dangerous  partisans. 

Between  these  adverse  impulses,”  he  writes, 


256 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


“ my  mind  is  agitated  almost  to  distraction  . . . 
I walk  on  tlie  edge  of  a precipice  almost  evex’y 
step  that  I take.”  In  the  midst  of  all  this  anx- 
iety, however,  he  was  fortunately  supported  by 
the  strong  commendation  of  his  constituents 
which  they  once  loyally  declared  by  formal  and 
unanimous  votes  in  a convention  summoned  for 
the  express  purpose  of  manifesting  their  sup- 
port. His  feelings  appear  by  an  entry  in  his 
Diary  in  October,  1837  : — 

“ I have  gone,”  he  said,  “ as  far  upon  this  article, 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  as  the  public  opinion  of  the 
free  portion  of  the  Union  will  bear,  and  so  far  that 
scarcely  a slave-holding  member  of  the  House  dares 
to  vote  with  me  upon  any  question.  I have  as  yet 
been  thoroughly  sustained  by  my  own  State,  but  one 
step  further  atid  I hazard  my  own  standing  and  in- 
fluence there,  my  own  final  overthrow,  and  the  cause 
of  liberty  itself  for  an  indefinite  time,  certainly  for 
more  than  my  remnant  of  life.  "Were  there  in  the 
House  one  member  capable  of  taking  the  lead  in  this 
cause  of  universal  emancipation,  which  is  moving  on- 
ward in  the  world  and  in  this  country,  I would  with- 
draw from  the  contest  which  will  rage  with  increasing 
fury  as  it  draws  to  its  crisis,  but  for  the  management 
of  which  my  age,  infirmities,  and  approaching  end 
totally  disqualify  me.  There  is  no  such  man  in  the 
House.”  . 

September  15,  1837,  be  says:  “I  have  beeu 


JOES  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


257 


for  some  time  occupied  day  and  night,  when  at 
home,  in  assorting  and  recording  the  petitions 
and  remonstrances  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  other  anti-slavery  petitions,  which 
flow  upon  me  in  torrents.”  The  next  day  he 
presented  the  singular  petition  of  one  Sherlock 
S.  Gregoiy,  who  had  conceived  the  eccentric 
notion  of  asking  Congress  to  declare  him  “an 
alien  or  stranger  in  the  land  so  long  as  slavery 
exists  and  the  wrongs  of  the  Indians  are  unre- 
quited and  unrepented  of.”  September  28  he 
presented  a batch  of  his  usual  petitions,  and 
also  asked  leave  to  offer  a resolution  calling  for 
a report  concerning  the  coasting  trade  in  slaves. 
“ There  was  what  Napoleon  would  have  called 
a superb  NO  ! returned  to  my  request  from  the 
servile  side  of  the  House.”  The  next  day  he 
presented  fifty-one  more  like  documents,  and 
notes  having  previously  presented  one  hundred 
and  fifty  more. 

In  December,  1837,  still  at  this  same  work, 
he  made  a hard  but  fruitless  effort  to  have  the 
Texan  remonstrances  and  petitions  sent  to  a 
select  committee  instead  of  to  that  on  foreign  af- 
fairs which  was  constituted  in  the  Southern  in- 
terest. On  December  29  he  “ presented  several 
bundles  of  abolition  and  anti-slavery  petitions,” 
and  said  that,  having  declared  his  opinion  that 
the  gag -rule  was  unconstitutional,  null,  and 

17 


258 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


void,  he  should  “ submit  to  it  only  as  to  physical 
force.”  January  3,  1838,  he  presented  “aboiit 
a hundred  petitions,  memorials,  and  remon- 
strances,— all  laid  on  the  table.”  January  15 
he  presented  fifty  more.  January  28  lie  re- 
ceived thirty-one  petitions,  and  spent  that  day 
and  the  next  in  assorting  and  filing  these  and 
others  which  he  previously  had,  amounting  in 
all  to  one  hundred  and  twenty.  February  14, 
in  the  same  year,  Avas  a field-day  in  the  petition 
campaign  : he  presented  then  no  less  than  three 
hundred  and  fifty  petitions,  all  but  three  or  four 
of  which  bore  more  or  less  directly  upon  the 
slavery  question.  Among  these  petitions  Avas 
one 

“ praying  that  Congress  would  take  measures  to 
protect  citizens  from  the  North  going  to  the  South 
from  danger  to  their  lives.  When  the  motion  to  lay 
that  on  the  table  Avas  made,  I said  that,  ‘ In  another 
part  of  the  Capitol  it  had  been  threatened  that  if  a 
Northern  abolitionist  should  go  to  North  Carolina, 
and  utter  a principle  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence ’ — Here  a loud  cry  of  ‘ order  ! order ! ’ burst 
forth,  in  which  the  Speaker  yelled  the  loudest.  I 
waited  till  it  subsided,  and  then  resumed,  ‘ that  if  they 
could  catch  him  they  would  hang  him  ! ’ I said  this 
so  as  to  be  distinctly  heard  throughout  the  hall,  the 
renewed  deafening  shout  of  ‘ order  ! order  ! ’ notwith- 
standing. The  Speaker  then  said,  ‘ The  gentleman 
(rom  Massachusetts  will  take  his  seat ; ’ which  I did 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


259 


end  immediately  rose  again  and  presented  another 
petition.  He  did  not  dare  tell  me  that  I could  not 
proceed  without  permission  of  tlie  House,  and  I pro- 
ceeded. The  tlireat  to  hang  Northern  abolitionists 
was  uttered  by  Preston  of  the  Senate  witliin  the  last 
fortnight.” 

On  March  12,  of  the  same  year,  he  presented 
ninety-sis  petitions,  nearly  all  of  an  anti-slav- 
ery character,  one  of  them  for  “expunging  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  from  the  Jour- 
nals.” 

On  December  14,  1838,  Mr.  Wise,  of  Vir 
ginia,  objected  to  the  reception  of  certain  anti- 
slavery  petitions.  The  Speaker  ruled  his  ob- 
jection out  of  order,  and  from  this  ruling  Wise 
appealed.  The  question  on  the  appeal  was 
taken  by  yeas  and  nays.  When  Mr.  Adams’s 
name  was  called,  he  relates  : — 

“ I rose  and  said,  ‘ Mr.  Speaker,  considering  all  the 
resolutions  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  New 
Hampshire  as  ’ — The  Speaker  roared  out,  ‘ Tlie 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  must  answer  Aye  or 
No,  and  nothing  else.  Order  ! ’ With  a reinforced 
voice  — ‘ I refuse  to  answer,  because  I consider  all 
the  proceedings  of  the  House  as  unconstitutional  ’ — 
While  in  a firm  and  swelling  voice  I pronounced  di^ 
iinctly  these  words,  the  Speaker  and  about  two  thirds 
of  the  House  cried.  ‘ order ! order ! order ! ’ till  it  be- 
came a perfect  yell.  I paused  a moment  for  it  to 


260 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


cease  and  then  said,  ‘a  direct  violation  of  the  Const!* 
tution  of  the  United  States.’  While  speaking  these 
words  with  loud,  distinct,  and  slow  articulation,  the 
bawl  of  ‘ order ! order ! ’ resounded  again  from  two 
thirds  of  the  House.  The  Speaker,  with  agonizing 
lungs,  screamed,  ‘I  call  upon  the  House  to  support 
me  in  the  execution  of  my  duty  ! ’ I then  coolly  re- 
sumed my  seat.  Waddy  Thompson,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, advancing  into  one  of  the  aisles  with  a sarcastic 
smile  and  silvery  tone  of  voice,  said,  ‘What  aid  from 
the  House  would  the  Speaker  desire?’  The  Speaker 
snarled  back,  ‘ The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina 
is  out  of  order ! ’ and  a peal  of  laughter  burst  forth 
from  all  sides  of  the  House.’* 

So  that  little  skirmish  ended,  much  more 
cheerfully  than  was  often  the  case. 

December  20,  1838,  he  presented  fifty  anti 
slavery  petitions,  among  which  were  three  pray- 
ing for  the  recognition  of  the  Republic  of  Hayti. 
Petitions  of  this  latter  kind  he  strenuously  in- 
sisted should  be  referred  to  a select  committee, 
or  else  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
accompanied  in  the  latter  case  with  explicit 
instructions  that  a report  thereon  should  be 
brought  in.  He  audaciously  stated  that  he  asked 
for  these  instructions  because  so  many  petitions 
ef  a like  tenor  had  been  sent  to  the  Foi’eign 
Affairs  Committee,  and  had  found  it  a limbc 
from  which  they  never  again  emerged,  and  the 
shairman  had  said  that  this  would  continue  to 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


261 


be  the  case.  The  chairman,  sitting  two  rows 
behind  Mr.  Adams,  said,  “ that  insinuation 
should  not  be  made  against  a gentleman ! ” “ I 

shall  make,”  retorted  INIr.  Adams,  “what  insin- 
uation I please.  This  is  not  an  insinuation,  but 
a direct,  positive  assertion.” 

January  7,  1839,  he  cheerfully  records  that 
he  presented  ninety-five  petitions,  bearing  “ di- 
rectly or  indirectly  upon  the  slavery  topics,” 
and  some  of  them  very  exasperating  in  their 
language.  March  30,  1840,  he  handed  in  no 
less  than  five  hundred  and  eleven  petitions, 
many  of  which  were  not  receivable  under  the 
“gag”  rule  adopted  on  January  28  of  that 
year,  which  had  actually  gone  the  length  of  re- 
fusing so  much  as  a reception  to  abolition  pe- 
titions. April  13,  1840,  he  presented  a peti- 
tion for  the  repeal  of  the  laws  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  wdiich  authorized  the  wdiipping  of 
women.  Besides-  this  he  had  a multitude  of 
others,  and  he  only  got  through  the  presentation 
of  them  “just  as  the  morning  hour  expired.” 
On  January  21,  1841,  he  found  much  amuse- 
ment in  puzzling  his  Southern  adversaries  by 
presenting  some  petitions  in  which,  besides  the 
usual  anti-slavery  prayers,  there  was  a prayer 
*■0  refuse  to  admit  to  the  Union  any  new  State 
■Those  constitution  should  tolerate  slavery.  The 
Speaker  said  that  only"  the  latter  prayer  could 


262 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


be  received  under  tlie  “ gag  ” rule.  Connor,  of 
North  Carolina,  moved  to  lay  on  the  table  so 
much  of  the  petition  as  could  be  received,  INIr. 
Adams  tauntingly  suggested  that  in  order  to  do 
this  it  would  be  necessary  to  mutilate  the  doc- 
ument by  cutting  it  into  two  pieces ; whereat 
there  was  great  wrath  and  confusion,  the 
House  got  into  a snarl,  the  Speaker  knew  not 
what  to  do.”  The  Southerners  raved  and  fumed 
for  a while,  and  finally  resorted  to  their  usual 
expedient,  and  dropped  altogether  a matter 
which  so  sorely  burned  their  fingers. 

A fact,  very  striking  in  view  of  the  subse- 
quent course  of  events,  concerning  Mr,  Adams’s 
relation  with  the  slavery  question,  seems  hith- 
erto to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  those  Avho 
have  dealt  with  his  career.  It  may  as  well  find 
a place  here  as  elsewhere  in  a narrative  which  it 
is  difiicult  to  make  strictly  chronological.  Ap- 
parently he  was  the  first  to  declare  the  doc- 
trine, that  the  abolition  of  slavery  could  be  law- 
fully accomplished  by  the  exei'cise  of  the  war 
powers  of  the  Government.  The  earliest  ex- 
pression of  this  principle  is  found  in  a speech 
made  by  him  in  May,  1836,  concerning  the 
distribution  of  rations  to  fugitives  from  Indian 
hostilities  in  Alabama  and  Georgia.  He  then 
!>aid : — 

“From  the  instant  that  your  slave-holding  State* 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


2G3 


aecome  the  theatre  of  war,  civil,  servile,  or  foreign, 
from  that  instant  the  war  powers  of  the  Constitution 
extend  to  interference  with  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  every  way  in  which  it  can  be  interfered  with,  from 
a claim  of  indemnity  for  slaves  taken  or  destroyed, 
to  a cession  of  the  State  burdened  with  slavery  to  a 
foreign  power.” 

In  June,  1841,  he  made  a speech  of  which  no 
report  exists,  but  the  contents  of  which  may  be 
in  part  learned  from  the  replies  and  references 
to  it  which  are  on  record.  Therein  he  appears 
to  have  declared  that  slavery  could  be  abolished 
in  the  exercise  of  the  treaty-making  power, 
having  reference  doubtless  to  a treaty  conclud- 
ing a war. 

These  views  were  of  course  mere  abstract  ex- 
pressions of  opinion  as  to  the  constitutionality 
of  measures  the  real  occurrence  of  which  was 
anticipated  by  nobody.  But,  as  the  first  sug- 
gestions of  a doctrine  in  itself  most  obnoxious 
to  the  Southern  theory  and  fundamentally  de- 
structive of  the  great  Southern  “ institution  ” 
under  perfectly  possible  circumstances,  this  enun- 
ciation by  Mr.  Adams  gave  rise  to  much  indig- 
nation. Instead  of  allowing  the  imperfectly 
formulated  principle  to  lose  its  danger  in  obliv- 
ion, the  Southerners  assailed  it  with  vehemence. 
They  taunted  Mr.  Adams  with  the  opinion,  as  if 
merely  to  say  that  he  held  it  w*as  to  damn  him 


264 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


to  everlasting  infamy.  The  only  result  was  that 
they  induced  him  to  consider  the  matter  more 
fully,  and  to  expi’ess  his  belief  moi’e  deliber- 
ately. In  January,  1842,  Mr.  Wise  attacked 
him  upon  this  ground,  and  a month  later  Mar- 
shall followed  in  tlie  same  strain.  These  as- 
saults were  perhaps  the  direct  incentive  to  what 
was  said  soon  after  by  Mr.  Adams,  on  April 
14,  1842,  in  a speech  concerning  war  with  Eng- 
land and  with  Mexico,  of  which  there  was  then 
some  talk.  Giddings,  among  other  resolutions, 
had  introduced  one  to  the  effect  that  the  slave 
States  had  the  exclusive  right  to  be  consulted 
on  the  subject  of  slavery.  Mr.  Adams  said  that 
he  could  not  give  his  assent  to  this.  One  of  the 
laws  of  war,  he  said,  is 

“ that  when  a country  is  invaded,  and  two  hostile 
armies  are  set  in  martial  array,  the  commanders  of 
both  armies  have  power  to  emancipate  all  the  slaves 
in  the  invaded  territory.” 

He  cited  some  precedents  from  South  Ameri- 
can history,  and  continued  : — 

“ Whether  the  war  be  servile,  civil,  or  foreign,  I lay 
this  down  as  the  law  of  nations.  I say  that  the  mil- 
tary authority  takes  for  the  time  the  place  of  all  mu- 
nicipal institutions,  slavery  among  the  rest.  Under 
that  state  of  things,  so  far  from  its  being  true  that  the 
States  where  slavery  exists  have  the  exclusive  man- 
agement of  the  subject,  not  only  the  President  of  th« 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


2G5 


United  States  but  the  commander  of  the  army  has 
power  to  order  the  universal  emancipation  of  the 
slaves.” 

This  declaration  of  constitutional  doctrine 
was  made  with  much  positiveness  and  emphasis. 
There  for  many  years  the  matter  rested.  The 
principle  had  been  clearly  asserted  by  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, angrily  repudiated  by  the  South,  and  in 
the  absence  of  the  occasion  of  war  there  was 
nothing  more  to  be  done  in  the  matter.  But 
when  the  exigency  at  last  came,  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  were  brought  face 
to  face  with  by  far  the  gravest  constitutional 
problem  presented  by  the  great  rebellion,  then 
no  other  solution  presented  itself  save  that  which 
had  been  suggested  twenty  years  earlier  in  the 
days  of  peace  by  Mr.  Adams.  It  was  in  pur- 
suance of  the  doctrine  to  which  he  thus  gave 
the  first  utterance  that  slavery  was  forever  abol- 
ished in  the  United  States.  Extracts  from  the 
last-quoted  speech  long  stood  as  the  motto  of 
the  “ Liberator;”  and  at  the  time  of  the  Eman- 
'ipation  Proclamation  Mr.  Adams  was  regarded 
as  the  chief  and  sufficient  authority  for  an  act 
BO  momentous  in  its  effect,  so  infinitely  useful 
in  a matter  of  national  extremity.  But  it  was 
evidently  a theory  which  had  taken  strong  hold 
upon  him.  Besides  the  foregoing  speeches  there 
is  an  explicit  statement  of  it  in  a letter  which 


2G6 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


be  wrote  from  Washington  April  4,  183G,  to 
Hon.  Solomon  Lincoln,  of  Hingham,  a friend 
and  constituent.  After  touching  upon  other 
topics  he  says : — 

The  new  pretensions  of  the  slave  representation 
in  Congress  of  a right  to  refuse  to  receive  petitions,  and 
that  Congress  have  no  constitutional  power  to  abolish 
slavery  or  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
forced  upon  me  so  much  of  the  discussion  as  I did 
take  upon  me,  but  in  which  you  are  well  aware  I did 
not  and  could  not  speak  a tenth  part  of  my  mind.  I 
did  not,  for  example,  start  the  question  whether  by 
the  law  of  God  and  of  nature  man  can  ho\([  property, 
HEREDITARY  property,  in  man.  I did  not  start  the 
question  whether  in  the  event  of  a servile  insurrection 
and  war.  Congress  \vould  not  have  complete  unlimited 
control  over  the  whole  subject  of  slavery,  even  to  the 
emancipation  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  State  where  such 
insurrection  should  break  out,  and  for  the  suppression 
of  which  the  freemen  of  Plymouth  and  Norfolk  coim- 
;ies,  Massachusetts,  should  be  called  by  Acts  of  Con- 
gress to  pour  out  their  treasures  and  to  shed  their 
blood.  Had  I spoken  my  mind  on  these  two  points, 
the  sturdiest  of  the  abolitionists  would  have  disavowed 
die  sentiments  of  their  champion.” 

The  projected  annexation  of  Texas,  which 
became  a battle-ground  whereon  the  tide  of 
conflict  swayed  so  long  and  so  fiercely  to  and 
fro,  profoundly  stirred  Mr.  Adams’s  indigna- 
tion. It  is,  he  said,  “a  question  of  far  deepei 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


267 


root  and  more  overshadowing  branches  than 
any  or  all  others  that  now  agitate  this  country 
. . . I had  opened  it  by  iny  speech  ...  on 
the  25tli  May,  1836  — by  far  the  most  noted 
speech  that  I ever  made.”  He  based  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  annexation  upon  constitutional 
objections,  and  on  September  18,  1837,  offered 
a resolution  that  “ the  power  of  annexing  the 
people  of  any  independent  State  to  this  Union 
is  a power  not  delegated  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  to  their  Congress  or  to  any 
department  of  their  government,  but  reserved 
to  the  people.”  The  Speaker  refused  to  re- 
ceive the  motion,  or  even  allow  it  to  be  read, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  in  order.  Mr. 
Adams  repeated  substantially  the  same  motion 
in  June,  1838,  then  adding  “that  any  attempt 
by  act  of  Congress  or  by  treaty  to  annex  the 
Republic  of  Texas  to  this  Union  would  be  an 
usurpation  of  power  which  it  would  be  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  the  free  people  of  the 
Union  to  resist  and  annul.”  The  story  of  his 
opposition  to  this  measure  is,  however,  so  in- 
terwoven with  his  general  antagonism  to  slav- 
ery, that  there  is  little  occasion  for  treating 
them  separately.^ 

^ In  an  address  to  his  cons''ituents  in  September,  .342,  Mt 
A.dams  spoke  of  his  course  concerning  Texas.  Having  men 
rioncd  Mr.  Van  Buren’s  rejdy,  declining  the  formal  proposition 


268 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


People  sometimes  took  advantage  of  his 
avowed  principles  concerning  freedom  of  peti- 
tion to  put  him  in  positions  which  they  thought 
would  embarrass  him  or  render  him  ridiculous. 
Not  much  success,  however,  attended  these  fool- 
ish efforts  of  shallow  wits.  It  was  not  easy  to 
disconcert  him  or  to  take  him  at  disadvantage. 
July  28,  1841,  he  presented  a paper  of  this 
character  coming  from  sundry  Virginians  and 
praying  that  all  the  free  colored  population 
should  be  sold  or  expelled  from  the  country. 

made  in  1837  by  the  Republic  of  Texas  for  annexation  to  the 
United  States,  he  continued  : “ But  the  slave-breeding  passion 
for  the  annexation  was  not  to  be  so  disconcerted.  At  the  en- 
suing session  of  Congress  numerous  petitions  and  memorials 
for  and  against  the  annexation  were  presented  to  the  House, 
. . . and  were  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
who,  without  ever  taking  them  into  consideration,  towards  the 
close  of  the  session  asked  to  be  discharged  from  the  consider- 
ation of  them  all.  It  was  on  this  report  that  the  debate  arose, 
in  which  I disclosed  the  whole  system  of  duplicity  and  perfidy 
towards  Mexico,  which  had  marked  the  Jackson  Administra- 
tion from  its  commencement  to  its  close.  It  silenced  the 
clamors  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  Union  for  three 
years  till  the  catastrophe  of  the  Van  Buren  Administration. 
The  people  of  the  free  States  were  lulled  into  the  belief  that 
the  whole  project  was  abandoned,  and  that  they  should  hear 
no  more  of  slave-trade  cravings  for  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
Had  Harrison  lived  they  would  have  heard  no  more  of  them 
to  this  day,  but  no  sooner  was  John  Tyler  installed  in  tlie 
President’s  House,  than  nullification  and  Texas  and  war  with 
Mexico  rose  again  upon  the  surface,  with  eye  steadily  fixed 
npon  the  Polar  Star  of  Southern  slave-dealing  supremacy  ii 
the  government  of  the  Union.” 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


269 


He  simply  slated  as  he  handed  in  the  sheet  that 
nothing  could  be  moi-e  abhoi’rent  to  him  than 
this  prayer,  and  that  his  respect  for  the  right  of 
petition  was  his  only  motive  for  presenting  this. 
It  was  suspended  under  the  “gag”  rule,  and 
its  promoters,  unless  very  easily  amused,  must 
have  been  sadly  disappointed  with  the  fate  and 
effect  of  their  joke.  On  March  5,  1838,  he 
received  from  Rocky  Mount  in  Virginia  a letter 
and  petition  praying  that  the  House  would  ar- 
raign at  its  bar  and  forever  expel  John  Quincy 
Adams.  He  presented  both  documents,  with 
a resolution  asking  that  they  be  referred  to  a 
committee  for  investigation  and  report.  His 
enemies  in  the  House  saw  that  he  was  sure 
to  have  the  best  of  the  sport,  if  the  matter 
should  be  pursued,  and  succeeded  in  laying  it 
on  the  table.  Waddy  Thompson  thoughtfully 
improved  the  opportunity  to  mention  to  IMr. 
Adams  that  he  also  had  received  a petition, 
“numerously  signed,”  praying  for  Mr.  Adams’s 
expulsion,  but  had  never  presented  it.  In  the 
following  May  IMr.  Adams  presented  another 
petition  of  like  tenor.  Dromgoole  said  that  he 
supposed  it  was  a “ quiz,”  and  that  he  would 
move  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  “unless  the  gentle- 
man from  IMassachusetts  wished  to  give  it  an- 
other direction.”  Mr.  Adams  said  that  “ the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  cared  very  lit- 


270 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


tie  about  it,”  and  it  found  tbe  limbo  of  the 
“ table.” 

To  this  same  period  belongs  the  memorable 
tale  of  ]\Ir.  Adams’s  attempt  to  present  a peti- 
tion from  slaves.  On  February  6,  1837,  he 
brought  in  some  two  hundred  abolition  peti- 
tions. He  closed  with  one  against  the  slave- 
trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia  purporting 
to  be  signed  by  “ nine  ladies  of  Fredericksburg, 
Virginia,”  whom  he  declined  to  name  because, 
as  he  said,  in  the  present  disposition  of  the 
country,  “ he  did  not  know  what  might  happen 
to  them  if  he  did  name  them.”  Indeed,  he 
added,  he  was  not  sure  that  the  petition  was 
genuine ; he  had  said,  when  he  began  to  pre- 
sent his  petitions,  that  some  among  them  were 
so  peculiar  that  he  was  in  doubt  as  to  their 
genuineness,  and  this  fell  within  the  descrip- 
tion. Apparently  he  had  concluded  and  was 
about  to  take  his  seat,  when  he  quickly  caught 
up  another  sheet,  and  said  that  he  held  in  his 
hand  a paper  concerning  which  he  should  wish 
to  have  the  decision  of  the  Speaker  before  pre- 
senting it.  It  purported  to  be  a petition  from 
twenty-two  slaves,  and  he  would  like  to  know 
whether  it  came  within  the  rule  of  the  House 
concerning  petitions  relating  to  slavery.  The 
Speaker,  in  manifest  confusion,  said  that  he 
could  not  answer  the  question  until  he  knew 


JO  UN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


271 


the  contents  of  the  document.  Mr.  Adams, 
remarking  that  “ it  was  one  of  those  petitions 
which  had  occurred  to  his  mind  as  not  being 
what  it  purported  to  be,”  proposed  to  send  it 
up  to  the  Chair  for  inspection.  Objection  was 
made  to  this,  and  the  Speaker  said  that  the 
circumstances  were  so  extraordinary  that  he 
would  take  the  sense  of  the  House.  That  body, 
at  first  inattentive,  now  became  interested,  and 
no  sooner  did  a knowledge  of  what  was  going 
on  spread  among  those  present  than  great  ex- 
citement prevailed.  Members  were  hastiljr 
brought  in  from  the  lobbies  ; many  tried  to 
speak,  and  from  parts  of  the  hall  cries  of 
“ Expel  him  ! Expel  him  ! ” were  heard.  For  a 
brief  interval  no  one  of  the  enrao:ed  Southern- 
ers  was  equal  to  the  unforeseen  emergency. 
Mr.  Haynes  moved  the  rejection  of  the  peti- 
tion. Mr.  Lewis  deprecated  this  motion,  being 
of  opinion  that  the  House  must  inflict  punish- 
ment on  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts. 
Mr.  Haynes  thereupon  withdrew  a motion  which 
was  so  obviously  inadequate  to  the  vindictive 
gravity  of  the  occasion.  Mr.  Grantland  stood 
cady  to  second  a motion  to  punish  Mr.  Adams, 
aad  i^Ir.  Lewis  said  that  if  punishment  should 
not  be  meted  out  it  would  “ oe  better  for  the 
'■epresentatives  from  the  slave-holding  States 
“•o  go  home  at  once.”  Mr.  Alford  said  that  so 


JOUN  QUJiXCr  ADAMS. 


272 

Boon  as  tbe  petition  sliould  be  presented  be 
would  move  that  it  should  “be  taken  from  the 
House  and  burned.”  At  last  Mr.  Thompson 
got  a resolution  into  shape  as  follows  : — 

“ That  the  Hon.  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  the  at- 
tempt just  made  by  him  to  introduce  a petition  pur- 
porting on  its  face  to  be  from  slaves,  has  been  guilty 
of  a gross  disrespect  to  this  House,  and  that  he  be 
instantly  brought  to  the  bar  to  receive  the  severe 
censure  of  the  Speaker.” 

In  supporting  this  resolution  he  said  that 
]\Ir.  Adams’s  action  was  in  gross  and  mlful  vio- 
lation of  the  rules  of  the  House  and  an  insult 
to  its  members.  He  even  threatened  criminal 
j)roceedings  before  the  grand  jury  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  saying  that  if  that  body  had 
the  “proper  intelligence  and  spirit”  people 
might  “ yet  see  an  incendiaiy  brought  to  con- 
dign punishment.”  Mr.  Haynes,  not  satisfied 
with  Mr.  Thompson’s  resolution,  proposed  a 
substitute  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Adams  had 
“rendered  himself  justly  liable  to  the  sevei’est 
censure  of  this  House  and  is  censured  accord- 
ingly.”  Then  there  ensued  a little  more  ex- 
cited speech-making  and  another  resolution,  that 
Mr.  Adams, 

“ by  his  attempt  to  introduce  into  this  House  a 
petition  from  slaves  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  ij 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


273 


the  District  of  Columbia,  has  committed  an  outrage 
on  the  feelings  of  the  people  of  a large  portion  of 
this  Union ; a flagrant  contempt  on  the  dignity  of  this 
House ; and,  hy  extending  to  slaves  a privilege  only 
belonging  to  freemen,  directly  incites  the  slave  pop- 
ulation to  insurrection  ; and  that  the  said  member 
be  forthwith  called  to  the  bar  of  the  House  and  be 
censured  by  the  Speaker.” 

Mr.  Lewis  remained  of  opinion  that  it  might 
be  best  for  the  Southern  members  to  go  home, 
— a proposition  which  afterwards  drew  forth  a 
flaming  speech  from  ^Ir.  Alford,  who,  far  from 
inclining  to  go  home,  Avas  ready  to  stay  “until 
this  fair  city  is  a field  of  Waterloo  and  this 
beautiful  Potomac  a river  of  blood.”  Mr. 
Patton,  of  Virginia,  was  the  first  to  speak  a 
few  words  to  bring  members  to  their  senses, 
pertinently  asking  Avhether  IMr.  Adams  had 
“attempted  to  offer”  this  petition,  and  whether 
it  did  indeed  pray  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
It  might  be  well,  he  suggested,  for  his  friends 
to  be  sure  of  their  facts  before  going  further. 
Then  at  last  Mr.  Adams,  wdio  had  not  at  all 
lost  his  head  in  the  general  hurly-burly,  rose 
and  said,  that  amid  these  numerous  resolutions 
charging  him  with  “ high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors” and  calling  him  to  the  bar  of  the 
House  to  answer  for  the  same,  he  had  thought 
t proper  to  remain  silent  until  the  House  should 
18 


274 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


take  some  action ; that  he  did  not  suppose 
that,  if  he  should  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  the 
House,  he  should  be  “ struck  mate  by  the  pre- 
vious question  ” before  he  should  have  been 
given  an  opportunity  to  “ say  a word  or  two  ” 
in  his  own  defence.  As  to  the  facts  : — “I  did 
not  present  the  petition,”  he  said,  “ and  I ap- 
peal to  the  Speaker  to  say  that  I did  not.  . . . 
I intended  to  take  the  decision  of  the  Speaker 
before  I went  one  step  towards  presentmg  or 
offering  to  present  that  petition.”  The  con- 
tents of  the  petition,  should  the  House  ever 
choose  to  read  it,  he  continued,  would  render 
necessary  some  amendments  at  least  in  the  last 
resolution,  since  the  prayer  was  that  slavery 
should  not  he  abolished!  “ The  gentleman  from 
Alabama  may  perchance  find,  that  the  object 
of  this  petition  is  precisely  what  he  desires  to 
accomplish ; and  that  these  slaves  who  have 
sent  this  paper  to  me  are  his  auxiliaries  instead 
of  being  his  opponents.” 

These  remarks  caused  some  discomfiture 
among  the  Southern  members,  who  were  glad 
to  have  time  for  deliberation  given  them  by  a 
maundering  speech  from  Mr.  Mann,  of  New 
York,  who  talked  about  “the  deplorable  spec- 
tacle shown  off  every  petition  day  by  the  hon- 
orable member  from  Massachusetts  in  present- 
ing the  abolition  petitions  of  his  infatuated 


JOHN  QUJNCY  ADAMS. 


215 


friends  and  constituents  charged  Mr.  Adams 
with  running  counter  to  the  sense  of  the  whole 
country  with  a “ violence  paralleled  only  by 
the  revolutionary  madness  of  desperation,”  and 
twitted  him  with  his  political  friendlessness, 
with  his  age,  and  with  the  insinuation  of  wan- 
ing faculties  and  judgment.  This  little  phial 
having  been  emptied,  Mr.  Thompson  arose  and 
angrily  assailed  Mr.  Adams  for  contemptuously 
trifling  with  the  House,  which  charge  he  based 
upon  the  entirely  unproved  assumption  that 
the  petition  was  not  a genuine  document.  He 
concluded  by  presenting  new  resolutions  bet- 
ter adapted  to  the  recent  development  of  the 
case : — 

1.  “ That  the  Hon.  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  an 
effort  to  present  a petition  from  slaves,  has  committed 
a gross  contempt  of  this  House. 

“ 2.  That  the  member  from  Massachusetts  above- 
named,  by  creating  the  impression  and  leaving  the 
House  under  such  impression,  that  the  said  petition 
was  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  when  he  knew  that 
it  was  not,  has  trifled  with  the  House. 

“3.  That  the  Hon.  John  Quincv  Adams  receive  the 
censure  of  the  House  for  his  conduct  referred  to  in 
che  preceding  resolutions.” 

Mr.  Pinckney  said  tbat  the  avowal  by  Mr. 
Adams  that  he  had  in  his  possession  the  peti- 
tion of  slaves  was  an  admission  of  comm  uni- 


276 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


cation  with  slaves,  and  so  Avas  evidence  of  col- 
lusion with  them;  and  that  Mr.  Adams  had 
thus  rendered  himself  indictable  for  aiding  and 
abetting  insurrection.  A fortiori^  then,  was 
he  not  amenable  to  the  censure  of  the  House? 
]\Ir.  Haynes,  of  Georgia,  forgetting  that  the  pe- 
tition had  not  been  presented,  announced  his 
intention  of  moving  that  it  should  be  rejected 
subject  only  to  a pei’mission  for  its  Avithdrawal; 
another  member  suggested  that,  if  the  petition 
should  be  disposed  of  by  burning,  it  would  be 
well  to  commit  to  the  same  combustion  the 
gentleman  who  presented  it. 

On  the  next  day  some  more  resolutions  Avere 
ready,  prepared  by  Dromgoole,  who  in  his  sober 
hours  was  regarded  as  the  best  parliamentarian 
in  the  Southern  party.  These  were,  that  Mr. 
Adams 

“ by  stating  in  his  place  that  lie  had  in  his  posses- 
sion a paper  purporting  to  be  a petition  from  slaves, 
and  inquiring  if  it  came  within  the  meaning  of  a res- 
olution heretofore  adojated  (as  preliminary  to  its 
presentation),  has  given  color  to  the  idea  that  slaves 
have  the  right  of  petition  and  of  his  readiness  to  be 
their  organ  ; and  that  for  the  same  he  deserves  the 
censure  of  the  House. 

“ That  the  aforesaid  John  Qnincy  Adams  receive  a 
censure  from  the  Speaker  in  the  presence  of  th? 
House  of  Eepresentatives.’- 


JOIIX  QUINCr  AD  Ail S. 


277 


Mr.  Alford,  in  advocating  these  resolutions, 
talked  about  “ this  awful  crisis  of  our  beloved 
country.”  IMr.  Robertson,  though  opposing 
the  resolutions,  took  pains  “ strongly  to  con- 
demn . . . the  conduct  of  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts.”  Mr.  Adams's  colleague,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  spoke  in  his  behalf,  so  also  did  i\Ir. 
Evans,  of  Maine ; and  Caleb  Cushing  made  a 
powerful  speech  upon  his  side.  Otherwise  than 
this  Mr.  Adams  was  left  to  carry  on  the  con- 
test single-handed  against  the  numerous  array 
of  assailants,  all  incensed  and  many  fairly  sav- 
age. Yet  it  is  a striking  proof  of  the  dread 
in  which  even  the  united  body  of  hot-blooded 
Southerners  stood  of  this  hard  fighter  from  the 
North,  that  as  the  debate  was  draAving  to  a close, 
after  they  had  all  said  their  say  and  just  before 
his  opportunity  came  for  making  his  elabo- 
rate speech  of  defence  they  suddenly  and  op- 
portunely became  ready  to  content  themselves 
with  a mild  resolution,  Avhich  condemned  gen- 
erally the  presentation  of  petitions  from  slaves, 
and,  for  the  disposal  of  this  particular  case, 
recited  that  Mr.  Adams  had  “solemnly  dis- 
claimed all  design  of  doing  anything  disrespect- 
ful to  the  House,”  and  had  “ avowed  his  inten- 
tion not  to  offer  to  present  ” to  the  House  the 
petition  of  this  kind  held  by  him  that  “ there- 
fore all  further  proceedings  in  regard  to  his 


278 


Jona  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


conduct  do  now  cease.”  A sneaking  effort  by 
Mr.  Vanderpoel  to  close  Mr.  Adams’s  mouth 
by  moying  the  previous  question  involved  too 
much  cowai'dice  to  be  carried;  and  so  on  Febru- 
ary 9 the  sorely  bated  man  was  at  last  able  to 
begin  his  final  speech.  He  conducted  his  de- 
fence with  singular  spirit  and  ability,  but  at  too 
great  length  to  admit  of  even  a sketch  of  what 
he  said.  He  claimed  the  right  of  petition  for 
slaves,  and  established  it  so  far  as  argument  can 
establish  anything.  He  alleged  that  all  he  had 
done  was  to  ask  a question  of  the  Speaker,  and 
if  he  was  to  be  censured  for  so  doing,  then  ho« 
much  more,  he  asked,  was  the  Speaker  deserv- 
ing of  censure  who  had  even  put  the  same 
question  to  the  House,  and  given  as  his  reason 
for  so  doing  that  it  was  not  only  of  novel  but 
of  difficult  import!  He  repudiated  the  idea 
that  any  member  of  the  House  could  be  held 
by  a grand  jury  to  respond  for  words  spoken 
in  debate,  and  recommended  the  gentlemen 
who  had  indulged  in  such  preposterous  threats 
“to  study  a little  the  first  principles  of  civil 
liberty,”  excoriating  them  until  they  actually 
arose  and  tried  to  explain  away  their  own  lan- 
guage. He  ca,st  infinite  ridicule  upon  the  un- 
happy  expression  of  Dromgoole,  “ giving  color 
to  an  idea.”  Referring  to  the  difficulty  which 
he  encountered  by  reason  of  the  variety  and 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


279 


disorder  of  the  resolutions  and  chai’ges  against 
him  with  which  “gentlemen  from  the  South 
had  pounced  down  upon  him  like  so  many 
eagles  upon  a dove,’*  — there  was  an  exquisite 
sarcasm  in  the  simile  ! — he  said : “ When  I 
take  up  one  idea,  before  I can  give  color  to 
the  idea,  it  has  already  changed  its  form  and 
presents  itself  for  consideration  under  other 
coloi's.  . . . What  defence  can  be  made  against 
this  new  crime  of  giving  color  to  ideas?  ” As 
for  trifling  wdth  the  House  by  presenting  a 
petition  which  in  the  course  of  debate  had  be- 
come pretty  well  known  and  acknowledged  to 
be  a hoax  designed  to  lead  Mr.  Adams  into  a 
position  of  embarrassment  and  danger,  he  dis- 
claimed any  such  motive,  reminding  members 
that  he  had  given  warning,  w'hen  beginning  to 
present  his  petitions,  that  he  was  suspicious 
that  some  among  them  might  not  be  genuine.^ 

1 Mr.  Adams  afterward  said : “ I believed  the  petition  signed 
by  female  names  to  be  genuine.  ...  I bad  suspicions  that  the 
other,  purporting  to  be  from  slaves,  came  really  from  the  hand 
of  a master  who  had  prevailed  on  his  slaves  to  sign  it,  that 
they  might  have  the  appearance  of  imploring  the  members 
from  the  North  to  cease  offering  petitions  for  their  emancipa- 
tion, which  could  have  no  other  tendency  than  to  aggravate 
their  servitude,  and  of  being  so  impatient  under  the  operation 
of  petitions  in  their  favor  as  to  pray  that  the  Northern  mem- 
bers who  should  persist  in  presenting  them  should  be  e.v- 
oellcd.”  It  was  a part  of  the  prayer  of  the  petition  that  Mr. 
.\dams  should  be  expelled  if  he  should  continue  to  present 
abolition  petitions. 


280 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


But  while  denying  all  intention  of  trifling  with 
the  House,  he  rejected  the  mercy  extended  to 
him  in  the  last  of  the  long  series  of  resolutions 
before  that  body.  “ I disclaim  not,”  he  said, 
“ any  particle  of  what  I have  done,  not  a sin- 
gle w'ord  of  what  I have  said  do  I unsay ; nay, 
I am  ready  to  do  and  to  say  the  same  to-mor- 
row.” He  had  no  notion  of  aiding  in  making 
a loophole  through  which  his  blundering  en- 
emies might  escape,  even  though  he  himself 
should  be  accorded  the  privilege  of  crawling 
through  it  with  them.  At  times  during  his 
speech  “ there  was  great  agitation  in  the 
House,”  but  when  he  closed  no  one  seemed  am- 
bitious to  reply.  His  enemies  had  learned 
anew  a lesson,  often  taught  to  them  before  and 
often  to  be  impressed  upon  them  again,  that  it 
was  perilous  to  come  to  close  quarters  with  hir. 
Adams.  They  gave  up  all  idea  of  censuring 
him,  and  were  content  to  apply  a very  mild 
emollient  to  their  own  smarting  wounds  in  the 
shape  of  a resolution,  to  the  effect  that  slaves 
did  not  possess  the  right  of  petition  secured  by 
the  Constitution  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

In  the  winter  of  1842-3  the  questions  arising 
out  of  the  affair  of  the  Creole  rendered  the 
position  then  held  by  Mr.  Adams  at  the  head  o' 
the  House  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  ex 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


281 


ceedinojlv  distasteful  to  tlie  slave-holders.  On 
Januaiy  21,  1842,  a somewhat  singular  mani- 
festation of  this  feeling  was  made  when  Mr. 
Adams  himself  presented  a petition  from  Geor- 
gia praying  for  his  removal  from  this  Chair- 
manship. Upon  this  he  requested  to  be  heard 
in  his  own  behalf.  The  Southern  party,  not 
sanguine  of  any  advantage  from  debating  the 
matter,  tried  to  lay  it  on  the  table.  The  peti- 
tion was  alleged  by  Habersham,  of  Georgia,  to 
be  undoubtedly  another  hoax.  But  IMr.  Adams, 
loath  to  lose  a good  opportunity,  still  claimed 
to  be  heard  on  the  charges  made  against  him 
by  the  “infamous  slave-liolders.”  Mr.  Smith,  of 
Virginia,  said  that  the  House  had  lately  given 
!Mr’.  Adams  leave  to  defend  himself  against  the 
charge  of  monomania,  and  asked  whether  he 
was  doing  so.  Some  members  cried  “ Yes  ! 
Yes  ! ” ; other’s  shouted  “ No  ! he  is  establishing 
the  fact.”  The  wrangling  was  at  last  brought 
to  an  end  by  the  Speaker’s  declaration,  that  the 
petition  must  lie  over  for  the  present.  But  the 
scene  had  been  only  the  prelude  to  one  much 
longer,  fiercer,  and  more  exciting.  No  sooner 
was  the  document  thus  temporarily  disposed  of 
than  Mr.  Adams  rose  and  presented  the  peti- 
tion of  forty-five  citizens  of  Haverhill,  Massa- 
chusetts, praying  the  House  “immediately  to 
adopt  measures  peaceably  to  dissolve  the  union 


282 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


of  tliese  States,”  for  the  alleged  cause  of  the 
incompatibility  between  free  and  slave-holding 
communities.  He  moved  “ its  reference  to  a 
select  committee,  with  instructions  to  report 
an  answer  to  the  petitioners  showing  the  rea- 
sons why  the  pi'ayer  of  it  ought  not  to  be 
granted.” 

In  a moment  the  House  was  aflame  with  ex- 
citement. The  numerous  members  who  hated 
Mr.  Adams  thought  that  at  last  he  was  experi- 
encing the  divinely  sent  madness  which  fore- 
runs destruction.  Those  who  sought  his  polit- 
ical annihilation  felt  that  the  appointed  and 
glorious  hour  of  extinction  had  come ; those 
■who  had  writhed  beneath  the  castigation  of  his 
invective  exulted  in  the  near  revenge.  While 
one  said  that  the  petition  should  never  have 
been  brought  within  the  walls  of  the  House, 
and  another  wished  to  burn  it  in  the  presence 
of  the  members,  Mr.  Gilmer,  of  Virginia,  offered 
a resolution,  that  in  presenting  the  petition 
Mr.  Adams  “ had  justly  incurred  the  censure  of 
the  House.”  Some  objection  was  made  to  this 
resolution  as  not  being  in  order ; but  Mr.  Ad- 
ams said  that  he  hoped  that  it  would  be  re- 
ceived and  debated  and  that  an  opportunity 
would  be  given  him  to  speak  in  his  own  de- 
fence ; “ especially  as  the  gentleman  from  Vir- 
ginia had  thought  proper  to  play  second  fiddle 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


283 


fco  liis  colleague  ^ from  Accomac.”  Mr.  Gilmer 
retorted  that  he  “played  second  fiddle  to  no 
man.  He  was  no  fiddler,  but  was  endeavoring 
to  prevent  the  music  of  liiin  who, 

‘ lu  the  space  of  one  revolving  moon, 

Was  statesman,  poet,  fiddler,  <and  buffoon.’  ” 

The  resolution  was  then  laid  on  the  table.  The 
House  resGj  and  Mr.  Adams  went  home  and 
noted  in  his  diary,  “ evening  in  meditation,” 
for  which  indeed  he  had  abundant  cause.  On 
the  following  day  Thomas  F.  iMarshall,  of  Ken- 
tucky, offered  a substitute  for  Gilmer’s  resolu- 
tion. This  new  fulmination  had  been  prepared 
in  a caucus  of  forty  members  of  the  slave-hold- 
ing party,  and  was  long  and  carefully  framed. 
Its  preamble  recited,  in  substance,  that  a pe- 
tition to  dissolve  the  Union,  proposing  to 
Congress  to  destroy  that  which  the  several 
members  had  solemnly  and  officially  sworn  to 
support,  was  a “ high  breach  of  privilege,  a 
contempt  offered  to  this  House,  a direct  propo- 
sition to  the  Legislature  and  each  member  of 
it  to  commit  perjury,  and  involving  necessarily 
in  its  execution  and  its  consequences  the  de- 
struction of  our  country  and  the  crime  of  high 
treason  : ” wherefore  it  was  to  be  resolved  that 
Mr.  Adams,  in  presenting  a petition  for  dissolu- 
tion, had  “ offered  the  deepest  indignity  to  the 
1 Ilemy  Wise. 


284 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


House”  and  “an  insult  to  the  people;”  that 
if  “ this  outrage  ” should  be  “ permitted  to  pass 
unrebuked  and  unpunished”  he  would  have 
“ disgraced  his  country  ...  in  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  world ; ” that  for  this  insult  and  this 
“wound  at  the  Constitution  and  existence  of  his 
country,  the  peace,  the  security  and  liberty  of 
the  people  of  these  States  ” he  “ might  well  bo 
held  to  merit  expulsion  from  the  national  coun- 
cils ;”  and  that  “the  House  deem  it  an  act  of 
grace  and  mercy  when  they  only  inflict  upon 
him  their  severest  censure;”  that  so  much  they 
must  do  “ for  the  maintenance  of  their  own 
purity  and  dignity  ; for  tlie  rest  they  turned 
him  over  to  his  own  conscience  and  the  indig- 
nation of  all  true  American  citizens.” 

These  resolutions  were  then  advocated  by 
Mr.  hlarshall  at  great  length  and  with  extreme 
bitterness.  Mr.  Adams  replied  shortly,  stating 
that  he  should  wish  to  make  his  full  defence  at 
a later  stage  of  the  debate.  Mr.  Wise  followed 
in  a personal  and  acrimonious  harangue;  Mr. 
Everett^  gave  some  little  assistance  to  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, and  the  House  again  adjoiu’ned.  The  fol- 
lowing day  Wise  continued  his  speech,  very 
elaborately.  When  he  closed,  Mr.  Adams,  who 
had  “ determined  not  to  interrupt  him  till  he 
had  discharged  his  full  cargo  of  filthy  invec- 
tive,” rose  to  “ make  a preliminary  point.”  H* 

1 Horace  Everett  of  Vermont. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


285 


questioned  the  right  of  the  House  to  entertain 
Marshall’s  resolutions  since  the  preamble  as- 
sumed him  to  be  guilty  of  the  crimes  of  subor- 
nation of  perjury  and  treason,  and  the  resolu- 
tions themselves  censured  him  as  if  he  had  been 
found  guilt}' ; whereas  in  fact  he  had  not  been 
tried  upon  these  charges  and  of  course  had  not 
been  convicted.  If  he  was  to  be  brought  to 
trial  upon  them  he  asserted  his  right  to  have 
the  proceedings  conducted  before  a jury  of  his 
peers,  and  that  the  House  was  not  a tribunal 
having  this  authority.  But  if  he  was  to  be 
tried  for  contempt,  for  which  alone  he  could 
lawfully  be  tried  by  the  House,  still  there  were 
an  hundred  members  sitting  on  its  benches  who 
were  morally  disqualified  to  judge  him,  who 
could  not  give  him  an  impartial  trial,  because 
they  were  prejudiced  and  the  question  was  one 
“ on  which  their  personal,  pecuniary,  and  most 
sordid  interests  were  at  stake.”  Such  consid- 
erations, he  said,  ought  to  prevent  many  gen- 
tlemen from  voting,  as  Mr.  Wise  had  avowed 
that  they  would  prevent  him.  Here  Wise  in- 
terrupted to  disavow  that  he  was  influenced  by 
any  such  reasons,  but  rather,  he  said,  by  the 
personal  loathing,  dread,  and  contempt  I feel 
for  the  man.”  Mr.  A dams,  continuing  after  this 
pleasant  interjection,  admitted  that  he  was  in 
'.he  power  of  the  majority,  who  might  try  him 


286 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


ngainst  law  and  condemn  liim  against  right  if 
they  would. 

“ If  they  say  they  will  try  me,  they  must  try  me. 
If  they  say  they  will  punish  me,  they  must  punish 
me.  But  if  they  say  that  in  peace  aud  mercy  they 
will  spare  me  expulsion,  I disdain  and  cast  away  their 
mercy ; and  I ask  them  if  they  will  come  to  such  a 
trial  and  expel  me.  I defy  them.  I have  constituents 
to  go  to  who  will  have  something  to  say  if  this  House 
expels  me.  Nor  will  it  be  long  before  the  gentlemen 
will  see  me  here  again.” 

Such  was  the  fierce  temper  and  indomitable 
courage  of  this  inflexible  old  man ! He  flung 
contempt  in  the  face  of  those  who  had  him 
wholly  in  their  power,  and  in  the  same  breath 
in  which  he  acknowledged  that  power  he  dared 
them  to  use  it.  He  charged  Wise  with  the 
guilt  of  innocent  blood,  in  connection  with  cer- 
tain transactions  in  a duel,  and  exasperated 
that  gentleman  into  crying  out  that  the  “chai’ge 
made  by  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  was 
as  base  and  black  a lie  as  the  traitor  was  base 
and  black  who  uttered  it.”  When  he  was  asked 
by  the  Speaker  to  put  his  point  of  order  in  writ- 
ing, — his  own  request  to  the  like  effect  in  an- 
other case  having  been  refused  shortly  before, 
--  he  tauntingly  congratulated  that  gentleman 
“ upon  his  discovery  of  the  expediency  of  having 
points  of  order  reduced  to  writing  — a favoi 


JOnX  aUIXCY  ADAMS. 


287 


^hich  lie  liaci  repeatedly  denied  to  me.”  When 
Mr.  Wise  was  speaking,  “ I interrupted  him  oc- 
casionally,” says  Mr.  Adams,  “sometimes  to 
provoke  him  into  absurdity.”  As  usual  he  was 
left  to  fight  out  his  desperate  battle  substan- 
tially single-handed.  Only  Mr.  Everett  occa- 
sionally helped  him  a very  little;  while  one  or 
two  others  who  spoke  against  the  resolutions 
Avere  careful  to  explain  that  they  felt  no  per- 
sonal good-will  towards  Mr.  Adams.  But  he 
faced  the  odds  courageously.  It  was  no  new 
thing  for  him  to  be  pitted  alone  against  a “solid 
South.”  Outside  the  walls  of  the  House  he  had 
some  sympathy  and  some  assistance  tendered 
him  by  individuals,  among  others  by  Rufus 
Choate  then  in  the  Senate,  and  by  his  own  col- 
leagues from  Massachusetts.  This  support  aided 
and  cheered  him  somewhat,  but  could  not  pre- 
vent substantially  the  whole  burden  of  the  labor 
and  brunt  of  the  contest  from  bearing  upon  him 
alone.  Among  the  external  manifestations  of 
feeling,  those  of  hostility  were  naturally  largely 
in  the  ascendant.  The  ueAvspapers  of  Washing- 
ton— the  Globe  and  the  National  Intelligencer 
— which  reported  the  debates,  daily  filled  their 
columns  with  all  the  abuse  and  invective  which 
was  poured  forth  against  him,  while  they  gave 
the  most  meagre  statements,  or  none  at  all,  of 
what  he  said  in  his  own  defence  Among  other 


288 


JOHN  QUIKCY  ADAMS. 


amenities  lie  received  from  Nortli  Carolina  an 
anonjnnons  letter  threatening  him  witli  assas- 
sin ation,  having  also  an  engraved  portrait  of 
him  with  the  mark  o£  a rifle-ball  in  the  fore- 
head, and  the  motto  “ to  stop  the  music  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,”  etc.,  etc.  This  missive 
he  read  and  displayed  in  the  House,  but  it  was 
received  with  profound  indifference  by  men  who 
would  not  have  greatly  objected  to  the  execu- 
tion of  the  barbarous  threat. 

The  prolonged  struggle  cost  him  deep  anx- 
iety and  sleepless  nights,  which  in  the  declining 
years  of  a laborious  life  told  hardly  upon  his 
aged  frame.  But  against  all  odds  of  numbers 
and  under  all  disadvantages  of  circumstances 
the  past  repeated  itself  and  Mr.  Adams  alone 
won  a victory  over  all  the  cohorts  of  the  South. 
Several  attempts  had  been  made  during  the 
debate  to  la}'  the  whole  subject  on  the  table. 
Mr.  Adams  said  that  he  would  consent  to  this 
simply  because  his  defence  would  be  a very 
long  affair,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  have  the 
time  of  the  House  consumed  and  the  business 
of  the  nation  brought  to  a stand  solely  for  the 
consideration  of  Ins  personal  affairs.  These  prop- 
ositions failing,  he  began  his  speech  and  soon 
was  making  such  headway  that  even  his  adver 
Baries  were  constrained  to  see  that  the  opporfu 
nity  which  they  had  conceived  to  be  within  thei/ 


JOHN  QL’IXCY  ADAMS. 


289 


grasp  was  eluding  them,  as  had  so  often  hap- 
pened before.  Accordingly  on  February  7 tlie 
motion  to  “lay  the  whole  subject  on  the  table 
forever  was  renewed  and  carried  by  one  hun- 
dred and  six  votes  to  ninety-three.  The  House 
then  took  up  the  original  petition  and  refused 
to  receive  it  by  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  to 
forty.  No  sooner  was  this  consummation  reached 
than  the  irrepressible  champion  rose  to  his  feet 
and  proceeded  with  his  budget  of  anti-slavery 
petitions,  of  which  he  “ presented  nearly  two 
hundred,  till  the  House  adjourned.” 

Within  a very  short  time  there  came  further 
and  convincing  proof  that  Mr.  Adams  was  vic- 
tor. On  February  26  he  writes : “ D.  D.  Bar- 
nard told  me  he  had  received  a petition  from 
his  District,  signed  by  a small  number  of  very 
respectable  persons,  praying  for  a dissolution  of 
the  Union.  He  said  he  did  not  know  what  to 
do  with  it.  I dined  with  him.”  By  March  14 
tins  dinner  bore  fruit.  Mr.  Barnard  had  made 
up  his  mind  “Avhat  to  do  with  it.”  He  pre- 
sented it,  with  a motion  that  it  be  referred  to  a 
select  committee  with  instructions  to  report  ad- 
versely to  its  prayer.  The  well-schooled  House 
now  took  the  presentation  without  a ripple  of 
excitement,  and  was  content  Avith  simply  voting 
uot  to  receUe  the  petition. 

In  the  midst  of  the  toil  and  anxiety  imposed 

19 


290 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


upon  Mr.  Adams  by  tliis  effort  to  censure  and 
disgrace  him,  the  scheme,  already  referred  to, 
for  displacing  him  from  the  chairmanship  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  bad  been  actively 
prosecuted.  He  was  notified  that  the  Southern 
members  had  formed  a cabal  for  removing  him 
and  putting  Caleb  Cushing  in  his  place.  The 
plan  was,  however,  temporarily  checked,  and  so 
soon  as  Mr.  Adams  had  triumphed  in  the  House 
the  four  Southern  members  of  the  committee 
sent  to  the  House  a paper  begging  to  be  ex- 
cused from  further  services  on  the  committee, 
“ because  from  recent  occurrences  it  was  doubt- 
ful whether  the  House  would  remove  the  chair- 
man, and  they  were  unwilling  to  serve  with  one 
in  whom  they  had  no  confiidence.”  The  fugi- 
tives were  granted,  “ by  a shout  of  acclamation,” 
the  excuse  which  they  sought  for  so  welcome  a 
reason,  and  the  same  was  also  done  for  a fifth 
member.  Three  more  of  the  same  party,  nomi- 
nated to  fill  these  vacancies,  likewise  asked  to  be 
excused,  and  were  so.  Their  letters  preferring 
this  request  were  “ so  insulting  personally  ” to 
Mr.  Adams  as  to  constitute  “ gross  breaches  of 
privilege.”  “ The  Speaker  would  have  refused 
CO  receive  or  present  them  had  they  referred  to 
any  other  man  in  the  House.”  They  were  pub- 
lished, but  i\lr.  Adams,  after  some  hesitation 
determined  not  to  give  them  the  importance 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  291 

whicli  would  result  from  any  public  notice  in 
the  House  upon  his  part.  He  could  afford  to 
Keep  silence,  and  judged  wisely  in  doing  so. 

Amid  all  the  animosity  and  rancor  enter- 
tained towards  Mr.  Adams,  there  yet  lurked 
a degree  of  respect  for  his  courage,  honesty, 
and  ability  which  showed  itself  upon  occasion, 
doubtless  not  a little  to  the  surprise  of  the 
members  themselves  who  were  hardly  conscious 
that  they  entertained  such  sentiments  until 
startled  into  a manifestation  of  them.  An  em- 
inent instance  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  stoiy 
of  the  troubled  days  preceding  the  organization 
of  the  twenty-sixth  Congress.  On  December 
2,  1839,  the  members  elect  of  that  body  came 
together  in  Washington,  with  the  knowledge 
that  the  seats  of  dve  gentlemen  from  New  Jer- 
sey, who  brought  with  them  the  regular  guber- 
natorial certificate  of  their  election,  would  be 
contested  by  five  other  claimants.  According 
to  custom  Garland,  clerk  of  the  last  House, 
called  the  assemblage  to  order  and  began  the 
roll-call.  When  he  came  to  New  Jersey  he 
called  the  name  of  one  member  from  that  State, 
and  then  said  that  there  were  five  other  seats 
which  were  contested,  and  that  not  feeling 
authorized  to  decide  the  dispute  he  would  pass 
over  the  names  of  the  New  Jersey  members 
and  proceed  with  the  roll  till  the  House  should 


292 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


be  formed,  when  tlie  question  could  be  de 
elded.  Plausible  as  appeared  this  abstention 
from  an  exercise  of  authority  in  so  grave  a dis- 
pute, it  was  nevertheless  really  an  assumption 
and  not  a deprecation  of  power,  and  as  such 
was  altogether  unjustifiable.  The  clerk’s  sole 
business  was  to  call  the  names  of  those  persons 
who  presented  the  usual  formal  credentials ; he 
had  no  right  to  take  cognizance  that  the  seats 
of  any  such  persons  might  be  the  subject  of  a 
contest,  which  could  projDerly  be  instituted,  con- 
ducted, and  determined  only  before  and  by  the 
House  itself  when  organized.  But  his  course 
was  not  innocent  of  a purpose.  So  evenly  was 
the  House  divided  that  the  admission  or  ex- 
clusion of  these  four  members  in  the  first  in- 
stance would  determine  thepo  itical  complexion 
of  the  body.  The  members  holding  tlie  certifi- 
cates were  Whigs  ; if  the  clerk  could  keep  them 
out  until  the  organization  the  House  should 
be  completed,  then  the  Democrats  would  con- 
trol that  organization,  would  elect  their  Speaker, 
and  through  him  would  make  up  the  commit- 
tees. 

Naturally  enough  this  arrogatioii  of  power 
by  the  clerk,  the  motives  and  consequences  of 
which  were  abundantly  obvious,  raised  a ter 
riblo  storm.  The  debate  continued  till  four 
s’clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  a motion  was 


JOIIX  QUlNCr  ADAilS. 


293 


made  to  adjourn.  The  cleidi  said  that  he  could 
put  no  question,  not  even  of  adjournment, 
till  the  House  should  be  formed.  But  there 
was  a general  cry  to  adjourn,  and  the  clerk 
declared  the  House  adjourned.  Mr.  Adams 
went  home  and  wrote  in  his  Diary  that  the 
clerk’s  “ two  decisions  form  together  an  insur- 
mountable objection  to  the  transaction  of  any 
business,  and  an  impossibility  of  organizing  the 
House.  , . . The  most  curious  part  of  the  case 
is,  that  his  orvn  election  as  clerk  depends  upon 
the  exclusion  of  the  New  Jersey  members.” 
The  next  day  was  consumed  in  a fierce  debate 
as  to  whether  the  clerk  should  be  allowed  to 
read  an  explanatory  statement.  Again  the  clerk 
refused  to  put  the  question  of  adjournment, 
but,  “upon  inspection,”  declared  an  adjourn- 
ment. Some  called  out  “a  count!  a count ! ” 
while  most  rushed  out  of  the  hall,  and  Wise 
cried  loudl}^  “Now  we  are  a mob  ! ” The  next 
day  there  was  more  violent  debating,  but  no 
progress  towards  a decision.  Various  party 
leaders  offered  resolutions,  none  of  which  ac- 
comj^lished  anything.  The  condition  was  ridic- 
ulous, disgraceful,  and  not  without  serious  pos- 
sibilities of  danger.  Neither  did  any  light  of 
Bncouragement  break  in  any  quarter.  In  the 
crisis  there  seemed,  by  sudden  consent  of  all,  to  . 
a tuiming  towards  INIr  Adams.  Prominent 


294 


JOUN  aUINCY  ADAMS. 


men  of  both  parties  came  to  him  and  begged 
him  to  interfere.  He  was  reluctant  to  plunge 
into  the  embroilment ; but  the  great  urgency 
and  the  abundant  assurances  of  support  placed 
little  less  than  actual  compulsion  upon  liim. 
Accordingly  on  December  5 be  rose  to  address 
the  House.  He  was  greeted  as  a Deus  ex 
macliina.  Not  speaking  to  the  clerk,  but  turn- 
ing directly  to  the  assembled  members,  he  be- 
gan: “Fellow-citizens!  Members  elect  of  the 
twenty-sixth  Congress  I ” He  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  of  administering  a brief  but  se- 
vere and  righteous  castigation  to  Garland ; and 
then,  ignoring  that  functionary  altogether,  pro- 
ceeded to  beg  the  House  to  organize  itself.  To 
this  end  he  said  that  he  would  offer  a resolution 
“ ordering  the  clerk  to  call  the  members  from 
New  Jersey  possessing  the  credentials  from  the 
Governor  of  that  State.”  There  had  been  al- 
ready no  lack  of  resolutions,  but  the  difficulty 
lay  in  the  clerk’s  obstinate  refusal  to  put  the 
question  upon  them.  So  now  the  puzzled  cry 
went  up  : “ How  shall  the  question  be  put  ? ” 
“ I intend  to  put  the  question  myself,”  said  the 
dauntless  old  man,  wholly  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency. A tumult  of  applause  resounded  upon 
all  sides.  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  sprang  up 
and  offered  a resolution,  that  Williams,  of  North 
Carolina,  the  oldest  member  of  the  House,  be 


JOUX  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


295 


appointed  chairman  of  the  meeting ; but  upon 
objection  by  'Williams,  he  substituted  the  name 
of  Mr.  Adams,  and  put  the  question.  He  was 
“answered  by  an  almost  universal  shout  in  the 
affirmative.”  Whereupon  Rhett  and  Williams 
conducted  the  old  man  to  the  chair.  It  was  a 
proud  moment.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  afterward 
said,  addressing  a complimentary  speech  to  jMr. 
Adams,  “ and  if,  when  you  shall  be  gathered  to 
your  fathers,  I were  asked  to  select  the  words 
which  in  my  judgment  are  calculated  to  give  at 
once  the  best  character  of  the  man,  I would  in- 
scribe upon  your  tomb  this  sentence,  ‘ I will  put 
the  question  myself  ! ’ ” Doubtless  AVise  and  a 
good  many  more  would  have  been  glad  enough 
to  put  almost  any  epitaph  on  a tombstone  for 
Mr.  Adams.^  It  must,  however,  be  acknowl- 
edged that  the  impetuous  Southerners  behaved 
very  handsomely  by  their  arch  foe  on  this  oc- 
casion, and  were  for  once  as  chivah-ous  in  fact 
as  they  always  were  in  profession. 

Smooth  water  had  by  no  means  been  reached 
when  Mr.  Adams  was  placed  at  the  helm  ; on 
the  contrary,  the  buffetting  became  only  the 
more  severe  when  the  members  were  no  longer 

^ Not  quite  two  years  later,  pending  a motion  to  reprimand 
Mr.  tVise  for  fighting  with  a member  on  the  floor  of  the 
House,  that  gentleman  took  pains  insuhingly  to  say,  " that 
there  was  but  one  man  in  the  House  whose  judgment  he  was 
inwilling  to  abide  by,”  and  that  man  was  Mr.  Adams. 


296 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADaMS. 


restrained  by  a lurking  dread  of  grave  disaster 
if  not  of  utter  skip-wreck.  Between  two  bit- 
terly incensed  and  evenly  divided  parties  en- 
gaged in  a struggle  for  an  important  prize,  Mr. 
Adams,  having  no  strictly  lawful  authority  per- 
taining to  his  singular  and  anomalous  position, 
was  hard  taxed  to  perform  his  functions.  It  is 
impossible  to  follow  the  intricate  and  acrimo- 
nious quarrels  of  the  eleven  days  which  suc- 
ceeded until  on  December  16.  upon  the  eleventh 
ballot,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  of  Vii  ginia,  was  elected 
Speaker,  and  Mr.  Adams  was  relieved  from  the 
most  arduous  duty  imposed  upon  him  during 
his  life.  In  the  course  of  the  debates  there  had 
been  “ much  vituperation  and  much  equally 
unacceptable  compliment  ” lavished  upon  him. 
After  the  organization  of  the  House,  there  was 
some  talk  of  moving  a vote  of  thanks,  but  he 
entreated  that  it  should  not  be  done.  “ In  tlie 
rancorous  and  bitter  temper  of  the  Adminis- 
tration party,  exasperated  by  their  disappoint' 
ment  in  losing  their  Speaker,  the  resolution  of 
thanks,”  he  said,  “ would  have  been  lost  if  it 
had  been  offered.”  However  this  might  have 
been,  history  has  determined  this  occurrence 
to  have  been  one  of  the  most  brilliant  episode? 
in  a life  which  had  many  distinctions. 

A few  incidents  indicative  of  respect  must 
have  been  welcome  enough  in  the  solitary  fight 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


297 


laden  career  of  Mr.  Adams.  He  needed  soma 
occasional  encouragement  to  keep  him  from 
sinking  into  despondency;  for  though  he  was  of 
so  unyielding  and  belligerent  a disposition,  of 
such  ungracious  demeanor,  so  uncompromising 
with  friend  and  foe,  yet  he  was  a man  of  deep 
and  strong  feelings,  and  in  a way  even  very  sen- 
sitive though  a proud  reserve  kept  the  secret  of 
this  quality  so  close  that  few  suspected  it.  His 
Diary  during  his  Congressional  life  shows  a 
man  doing  his  duty  sternly  rather  than  cheer- 
fully, treading  resolutely  a painful  path,  having 
the  reward  which  attends  upon  a clear  conscience, 
but  neither  light-hearted  nor  often  even  happy. 
Especially  he  was  frequently  disappointed  at  the 
returns  which  he  received  from  others,  and  con- 
sidered himself  “ ill-treated  by  every  public  man 
whom  circumstances  had  brought  into  competi- 
tion with  him  ; ” they  had  returned  his  “ acts  of 
kindness  and  services”  with  “gi'oss  injustice.” 
The  reflection  did  not  induce  him  to  deflect  his 
course  in  the  least,  but  it  was  made  with  much 
bitterness  of  spirit.  Toward  the  close  of  1835 
he  writes : — 

“ Among  the  dark  spots  in  human  nature  which  in 
the  course  of  my  life  I have  observed,  the  devices  of 
rivals  to  ruin  me  have  been  sor-'y  pictures  of  the 
heart  of  man.  . . . H.  G.  Otis,  Theophilus  Parsons, 
Timothy  Pickering,  James  A.  Bayard,  Henry  Clay. 


298 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


Jonathan  Russell,  William  H.  Crawford,  John  C. 
Calhoun,  Andrew  Jackson,  Daniel  Webster,  and  John 
Davis,  W.  B.  Giles,  and  John  Randolph,  have  used 
up  their  faculties  in  base  and  dirty  tricks  to  thwart 
my  progress  in  life  and  destroy  my  character.” 

Truly  a long  and  exhaustive  list  of  enmities  ! 
One  can  but  suspect  that  a man  of  so  many 
quarrels  must  have  been  quarrelsome.  Certain 
it  is,  however,  that  in  nearly  every  difference 
which  Mr.  Adams  had  in  his  life  a question  of 
right  and  wrong,  of  moral  or  political  principle, 
had  presented  itself  to  him.  His  intention  was 
always  good,  though  his  manner  was  so  habit- 
ually irritating.  He  himself  says  that  to  nearly 
all  these  men  — Russell  alone  specifically  ex- 
cepted — he  had  “ i-eturned  good  for  evil,”  that 
he  had  “ never  wronged  any  one  of  them,”  and 
had  even  “ neglected  too  much  his  self-defence 
against  them.”  In  October,  1833,  he  said  : “ I 
subject  myself  to  so  much  toil  and  so  much 
enmity,  with  so  very  little  apparent  fruit,  that 
I sometimes  ask  myself  whether  I do  not  mis- 
take my  own  motives.  The  best  actions  of  my 
life  make  me  nothing  but  enemies.”  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1841,  he  made  a powerful  speech  in  cas- 
tigation of  Henry  A.  Wise,  who  had  been  up- 
holding in  Southern  fashion  slavery,  duelling, 
and  nullification.  He  received  afterward  some 
messages  of  praise  and  sympathy,  but  notec 


JOUX  QUIXCY 


299 


with  pain  that  his  colleagues  thought  it  one  of 
his  “ eccentric,  wild,  extravagant  freaks  of  pas- 
sion ; ” and  with  a pathetic  sense  of  loneliness  he 
adds : “ All  around  me  is  cold  and  discouraging 
and  my  own  feelings  are  wound  up  to  a pitch 
that  my  reason  can  scarcely  endure.”  A few 
days  later  he  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  one  of 
the  members  say,  in  a speech,  that  there  was  an 
opinion  among  many  that  Mr.  Adams  was  in- 
sane and  did  not  know  what  he  said.  While  a 
fight  was  going  on  such  incidents  only  fired  his 
blood,  but  afterwards  the  reminiscence  affected 
his  spirits  cruelly. 

In  August,  1810,  he  writes  that  he  has  been 
twelve  years  submitting  in  silence  to  the  “ foul- 
est and  basest  aspersions,”  to  which  it  would 
have  been  waste  of  time  to  make  reply,  since 
the  public  ear  bad  not  been  open  to  him.  “ Is 
the  time  arriving,”  he  asks,  “for  me  to  speak? 
or  must  I go  down  to  the  grave  and  leave  pos- 
terity to  do  justice  to  my  father  and  to  me  ? ” 

lie  has  had  at  least  the  advantage  of  saying 
his  say  to  posterity  in  a very  effective  and  con- 
vincing shape  in  that  Diary,  which  so  discom- 
fited and  enraged  General  Jackson.  There  is 
plain  enough  speaking  in  its  pages,  which  were 
a safet}"  valve  whereby  much  wrath  escaped. 
Mr.  Adams  had  the  faculty  of  forcible  expres- 
lion  when  he  chose  to  employ  it,  as  may  be  seen 


300 


JOHN'  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


from  a few  specimen  sentences.  On  March  28, 
1840,  lie  remarks  that  Atherton  “ this  day  emit- 
ted half  an  hour  of  his  rotten  breath  against 
a pending  bill.  Atherton  was  infamous  as  the 
mover  of  the  “ gag  ” resolution,  and  Mr.  Adams 
abhorred  him  accordingly.  Duncan,  of  Cincin- 
nati, mentioned  as  “ delivering  a dose  of  balder- 
dash,” is  described  as  “ the  prime  bully  of  the 
Kinderhook  Democracy,”  without  “ perception 
of  any  moral  distinction  between  truth  and 
falsehood,  ...  a thorough-going  hack-dema- 
gogue, coarse,  vulgar,  and  impudent,  with  a 
vein  of  low  humor  exactly  suited  to  the  rabble 
of  a popular  city  and  equally  so  to  the  taste  of 
the  present  House  of  Representatives.”  Other 
similar  bits  of  that  pessimism  and  belief  in  the 
deterioration  of  the  times,  so  common  in  old 
men,  occasionally  appear.  In  August,  1835,  he 
thinks  that  “ the  signs  of  the  times  are  porten- 
tous. All  the  tendencies  of  legislation  are  to 
the  removal  of  restrictions  from  the  vicious  and 
the  guilty,  and  to  the  exercise  of  all  the  powers 
of  government,  legislative,  judicial,  and  exec- 
utive, by  lawless  assemblages  of  individuals.” 
December  27,  1838,  he  looks  upon  the  Senate 
and  the  House,  “ the  cream  of  the  land,  the 
culled  darlings  of  fifteen  millions,”  and  ob- 
eerves  that  “ the  remarkable  phenomenon  that 
they  present  is  the  level  of  intellect  and  o^ 


JOUN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


301 


morals  upon  which  they  stand;  and  this  uni- 
versal mediocrity  is  the  basis  upon  which  the 
liberties  of  this  nation  repose.”  In  July,  1840, 
he  thinks  that 

“ parties  are  falling  into  profligate  factions.  1 
have  seen  this  before ; but  the  worst  symptom  now  is 
the  change  in  the  manners  of  the  people.  The  con- 
tinuance of  the  present  Administration  . . . will  open 
wide  all  the  flood-gates  of  corruption.  Will  a change 
produce  reform  ? Pause  and  ponder  ! Slavery,  the 
Indians,  the  public  lands,  the  collection  and  disburse- 
ment of  public  money,  the  tariff,  and  foreign  affairs: 
— what  is  to  become  of  them  ? ” 

On  January  29, 1841,  Henry  A.  Wise  uttered 
“ a motley  compound  of  eloquence  and  folly,  of 
braggart  impudence  and  childish  vanity,  of  self- 
laudation and  Virginian  narrow-mindedness.” 
After  him  Hubbard,  of  Alabama,  “ began  grunt- 
ing against  the  tariff.”  Three  days  later  Black, 
of  Georgia,  “ poured  forth  his  black  bile  ” for 
an  hour  and  a half.  The  nest  week  we  find 
Clifford,  of  Maine,  “ muddily  bothering  his 
trickster  invention  ” to  get  over  a rule  of  the 
House,  and  “ snapping  like  a mackerel  at  a red 
rag  ” at  +he  suggestion  of  a way  to  do  so.  In 
July,  1841,  we  again  hear  of  Atherton  as  a 
“ cross-grained  numskull  . . snarling  against 
the  loan  bill.”  With  such  peppery  passages 
.n  great  abundance  the  Diary  is  thickly  and 


802 


JOHN  aUlXCY  ADAMS. 


piquantly  besprinkled.  They  are  not  always 
pleasant,  perhaps  not  even  always  amusing,  but 
they  display  the  marked  element  of  censorious- 
ness in  Mr.  Adams’s  character,  which  it  is  nec- 
essary to  appreciate  in  order  to  understand  some 
parts  of  his  career. 

If  Mr.  Adams  never  had  tlie  cheerfid  sup- 
port of  popularity,  so  neither  did  lie  often  have 
the  encouragement  of  success.  He  said  that 
he  was  paying  in  his  declining  years  for  the 
good  luck  which  had  attended  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  his  life.  On  December  14,  1833,  he 
calculates  that  he  has  three  fourths  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Massachusetts  against  him,  and  by  es- 
tranging the  anti-Masons  he  is  about  to  become 
obnoxious  to  the  whole.  “ My  public  life  will 
terminate  by  the  alienation  from  me  of  all  man- 
kind. ...  It  is  the  experience  of  all  ages  that 
the  people  grow  weary  of  old  men.  I cannot 
flatter  myself  that  I shall  escape  the  common 
law  of  our  nature.”  Yet  he  acknowledges  that 
he  is  unable  to  “ abstract  himself  from  the  great 
questions  which  agitate  the  country.”  Soon 
after  he  again  writes  in  the  same  vein : “ To 
be  forsaken  by  all  mankind  seems  to  be  the 
destiny  that  awaits  my  last  days.”  August  6, 
1835,  he  gives  as  his  reason  for  not  accepting 
an  invitation  to  deliver  a discourse,  that  “ in- 
stead of  having  any  beneficial  influence  upor 


JOHN  QUIXCY  ADAMS. 


303 


the  public  mind,  it  would  be  turned  as  au  iii- 
Btrument  of  obloquy  against  myself.”  So  it 
had  been,  as  he  enumerates,  with  his  exertions 
against  Freemasonry,  his  labors  for  internal 
improvement,  for  the  manufacturing  interest, 
for  domestic  industry,  for  free  labor,  for  the 
disinterested  aid  then  lately  bi’ought  by  him  to 
Jackson  in  the  dispute  with  France ; “ so  it 
will  be  to  the  end  of  my  political  life.” 

When  to  unpopularitj"  and  reiterated  disap- 
pointment we  add  the  physical  ills  of  old  age,  it 
no  longer  surprises  us  to  find  IMr.  Adams  at 
times  harsh  and  bitter  beyond  the  excuse  of  the 
occasion.  That  he  was  a man  of  strong  phys- 
ique and  of  extraordinary  powers  of  endur- 
ance, often  surpassing  those  of  yomig  and  vigor- 
ous men,  is  evident.  For  example,  one  day  in 
March,  1840,  he  notes  incidentally:  “I  walked 
home  and  found  my  family  at  dinner.  From 
my  breakfast  yesterday  morning  until  one  this 
afternoon,  twenty-eight  hours,  I had  fasted.” 
Many  a time  he  showed  like,  if  not  quite  equal 
vigor.  But  he  had  been  a hard  worker  all  his 
life,  and  testing  the  powers  of  one’s  constitution 
does  not  tend  to  their  preservation  ; he  was  by 
no  means  free  from  the  wovs  of  the  flesh  or  from 
the  depression  which  comes  with  years  and  the 
dread  of  decrepitude.  Already  as  early  as 
October  7, 1833,  he  fears  that  his  health  is  “ ir- 


804 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


retrievable  ; ” he  gets  but  five  hours  a night  of 
“ disturbed  unquiet  sleep  — full  of  tossings.” 
February  17, 1831,  his  “ voice  was  so  hoarse  and 
feeble  that  it  broke  repeatedl}',  and  he  could 
scarcely  articulate.  It  is  gone  forever,”  he  very 
mistakenly  but  despondingly  adds,  “and  it  is 
in  vain  for  me  to  contend  against  the  decay  of 
time  and  nature.”  His  enemies  found  little 
truth  in  this  foreboding  for  many  sessions  there- 
after. Only  a year  after  he  had  performed  his 
feat  of  fasting  for  twentj^-eight  hours  of  busi- 
ness, he  received  a letter  from  a stranger  advis- 
ing him  to  retire.  He  admits  that  perhaps  he 
ought  to  do  so,  but  says  that  more  than  sixty 
years  of  public  life  have  made  activity  necessary 
to  him  ; it  is  the  “ weakness  of  his  nature  ” 
which  he  has  “ intellect  enough  left  to  perceive 
but  not  energy  to  control,”  so  that  “the  world 
will  retire  from  me  before  I shall  retii-e  from 
the  world.” 

The  brief  sketch  which  can  be  given  in  a 
volume  of  this  size  of  so  long  and  so  busy  a 
life  does  not  suffice  even  to  indicate  all  its 
many  industries.  The  anti-slavery  labors  of 
Mr.  Adams  during  his  Congressional  career 
were  alone  an  abundant  occupation  for  a man 
in  the  prime  of  life  ; but  to  these  he  added  a 
wonderful  list  of  other  toils  and  interests.  Ho 
^as  not  only  an  incessant  student  in  history 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


305 


politics,  and  literature,  but  be  also  constantly 
invaded  the  domain  of  science.  He  was  Chair- 
man of  the  Congressional  Committee  on  the 
Smithsonian  bequest,  and  for  several  years  he 
gave  much  time  and  attention  to  it,  striving  to 
give  the  fund  a direction  in  favor  of  science ; 
he  hoped  to  make  it  subservient  to  apian  which 
he  had  long  cherished  for  the  building  of  a 
noble  national  observatory.  He  had  much 
committee  work  ; he  received  many  visitors , 
he  secured  hours  of  leisure  for  his  favorite  pur- 
suit of  composing  poetry ; he  delivered  an  enor- 
mous number  of  addresses  and  speeches  upon 
all  sorts  of  occasions ; he  conducted  an  exten- 
sive correspondence  ; he  was  a very  devout  man, 
regularly  going  to  church  and  reading  three 
chapters  in  his  Bible  every  day ; and  he  kept 
up  faithfully  his  colossal  Diary.  For  several 
months  in  the  midst  of  Congressional  duties  he 
devoted  great  labor,  thought,  and  anxiety  to 
the  famous  cause  of  the  slaves  of  the  Amistad, 
in  which  he  was  induced  to  act  as  counsel  be- 
fore the  Supreme  Court.  Such  were  the  labors 
of  his  declining  age.  To  men  of  ordinary  cali- 
bre the  multiplicity  of  his  acquirements  and 
achievements  is  confounding  and  incredible. 
He  worked  his  brain  and  his  body  as  unspar- 
ingly as  if  they  had  been  machines  insensible  to 
the  pleasure  or  necessity  of  rest.  Surprisingly 


806 


JOHN  QUINCY  AD  Allis. 


did  they  submit  to  his  exacting  treatment,  last> 
ing  in  good  order  and  condition  far  beyond 
what  was  then  the  average  of  life  and  vigorous 
faculties  among  his  contemporaries  engaged  in 
public  affairs. 

In  August,  1842,  while  he  was  still  tarrying 
in  the  unwholesome  heats  of  Washington,  he 
had  some  symptoms  which  he  thought  premon- 
itory, and  he  speaks  of  the  next  session  of  Con- 
gress as  probably  the  last  which  he  should  ever 
attend.  IMarch  25,  1844,  he  gives  a painful 
sketch  of  himself.  Physical  disability,  he  says, 
must  soon  put  a stop  to  his  Diary.  That  morn- 
ing he  had  risen  “ at  four,  and  with  smarting, 
bloodshot  eyes  and  shivering  hand,  still  sat 
down  and  wrote  to  fill  up  the  chasm  of  the 
closing  days  of  last  week.”  If  his  remaining 
days  were  to  be  few  he  was  at  least  resolved  to 
make  them  long  for  purposes  of  unremitted  la- 
bor. 

But  he  had  one  great  joy  and  distinguished 
triumph  still  in  store  for  him.  From  the  time 
when  the  “gag”  rule  had  been  first  established, 
Mr.  Adams  had  kept  up  an  unbroken  series  of 
attacks  upon  it  at  all  times  and  by  all  means. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  several  sessions,  when 
the  rules  were  established  by  the  House,  he 
always  moved  to  strike  out  this  one.  Year 
after  year  his  motion  was  voted  down,  but  year 


JOBK  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


307 


after  year  lie  renewed  it  with  invincible  per- 
severance. The  majorities  against  him  began 
to  dwindle  till  they  became  almost  impercep- 
tible ; in  1842  it  was  a majority  of  four;  in 
1843,  of  three  ; in  1844  the  struggle  was  pro- 
tracted for  weeks,  and  Mr.  Adams  all  but  car- 
ried the  day.  It  was  evident  that  victory  was 
not  far  off,  and  a kind  fate  had  destined  him  to 
live  not  only  to  see  but  himself  to  win  it.  On 
December  3,  1844,  he  made  his  usual  motion 
and  called  for  the  yeas  and  nays ; a motion  was 
made  to  lay  his  motion  on  the  table,  and  upon 
that  also  the  question  was  taken  by  yeas  and 
nays  — eighty-one  yeas,  one  hundred  and  four 
nays,  and  his  motion  was  not  laid  on  the  table. 
The  question  was  then  put  upon  it,  and  it  was 
carried  by  the  handsome  vote  of  one  hundred 
and  eight  to  eightv.  In  that  moment  the 
“ gag  ” rule  became  a thing  of  the  past,  and 
Mr.  Adams  had  conquered  in  his  last  fight. 
“Blessed,  foi’ever  blessed,  be  the  name  of  God ! ” 
he  writes  in  recording  the  event.  A week  aft- 
erwards some  anti-slavery  petitions  were  re- 
ceived and  actually  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  the  Distract  of  Columbia.  This  glorious  con- 
summation having  beeir  achieved,  this  advanced 
stage  in  the  long  conflict  having  been  reached, 
Mr.  Adams  could  not  hope  for  life  to  see  an- 
other goal  passed.  Ilis  work  was  nearly  done; 


808 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


he  had  grown  aged,  and  had  worn  himself  out 
faithfully  toiling  in  the  struggle  which  must 
hereafter  be  fought  through  its  coming  phases 
and  to  its  final  success  by  others,  younger  men 
than  he,  though  none  of  them  certainly  having 
over  him  any  other  militant  advantage  save 
only  the  accident  of  youth. 

His  mental  powers  were  not  less  than  at  any 
time  in  the  past  when,  on  November  19,  1846, 
he  was  struck  by  paralysis  in  the  street  in  Bos- 
ton. He  recovered  from  the  attack,  however, 
sufficiently  to  resume  his  duties  in  Washington 
some  three  months  later.  His  reappearance 
in  the  House  was  marked  bj^  a pleasing  inci- 
dent : all  the  members  rose  together ; business 
was  for  the  moment  suspended;  liis  old  accus- 
tomed seat  was  at  once  surrendered  to  him  by 
the  gentleman*  to  whom  it  had  fallen  in  the 
allotment,  and  he  was  formally  conducted  to  it 
by  two  members.  After  this,  though  punctual 
in  attendance,  he  only  once  took  part  in  debate. 
On  February  21,  1848,  he  appeared  in  his  seat 
as  usual.  At  half-past  one  in  the  afternoon 
the  Speaker  was  rising  to  put  a question,  when 
he  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  cries  of  “ Stop  I 
Slop  ! — Mr.  Adams  ! ” Some  gentlemen  near 
Mr.  Adams  had  thought  that  he  was  striving 
to  rise  to  address  the  Speaker,  when  in  an  in- 
stant he  fell  over  insensible.  The  members 
thronged  around  him  in  great  confusion.  The 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


30i 


House  hastily  adjourned.  He  was  placed  on  £ 
sofa  and  removed  first  to  tlie  hall  of  the  ro- 
tunda and  tlien  to  the  Speaker’s  room.  Medi- 
cal men  were  in  attendance  but  could  be  of  nc 
service  in  the  presence  of  death.  The  stern 
old  fighter  lay  dying  almost  on  the  very  field  o1 
BO  many  battles  and  in  the  very  tracks  in 
which  he  had  so  often  stood  erect  and  uncon- 
querable, taking  and  dealing  so  many  mighty 
blows.  Late  in  the  afternoon  some  inarticu- 
late mutterings  were  construed  into  the  words, 
“Thank  the  officers  of  the  House.”  Soon  again 
he  said  intelligibly,  “ This  is  the  last  of  earth  ! 
I am  content ! ” It  was  his  extreme  utterance. 
He  lay  thereafter  unconscious  till  the  evening 
of  the  23d,  when  he  passed  quietly  away. 

He  lies  buried  “ under  the  portal  of  the 
church  at  Quincy  ” beside  his  wife,  who  sur- 
vived him  four  years,  his  father  and  his  mother. 
The  memorial  tablet  inside  the  church  bears 
upon  it  the  words  “Alter!  SjbcuIo,”  — surely 
never  more  justly  or  appropriately  applied  tc 
any  man  than  to  John  Quincy  Adams,  hardly 
abused  and  cruelly  misappreciated  in  his  own 
day  but  whom  subsequent  generations  already 
begin  to  honor  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  Amer- 
ican statesmen,  not  only  prechnlnent  in  ability 
and  acquirements,  but  even  more  to  be  honored 
for  profound,  immutable  honesty  of  purpose 
ind  broad,  noble  humanity  of  aims. 


INDEX, 


iDAMS,  Dr  , Engiisu  Commissioner 
to  treat  for  peace,  77. 
idams,  John,  Minister  to  Paris,  4 ; 
Minister  to  St.  James's,  14;  be- 
comes President,  23  ; nominates 
his  son  Minister  to  Prussia,  24  ; 
and  recalLs  him,  24  ; leaves  Wash- 
ogton,  25 ; breaks  the  Federal 
„ 3arty,  26. 

^O^ms  John  Quincy,  birth,  1 ; nam- 
ing, 1 ; childhood  during  Revolu- 
tion, 2;  letter  to  his  father,  3; 
goes  to  Paris,  4;  letter  to  his 
mother,  5 ; begins  his  diary,  6 ; 
depicted  therein,  10  et  seq. ; life 
abroad,  in  Russia  andatParivS,  13, 
14 ; retuiTis  home  and  goes  to 
Ilarvard  College,  15-17 : studies 
law  and  begins  practice,  17  ; pub- 
lishes political  papers  of  “ Publi- 
cola,”  “ Marcellus,”  “ Colum- 
bus,”and ‘‘ BarneveltJ’ 18  ; Min- 
ister to  the  Uague,  19-21 ; diplo- 
matic errand  to  England,  21 ; en- 
' gagement  and  marriage,  22,  23 ; 
transferred  to  court  of  Portugal, 
23;  Minister  to  Prussia,  24;  re- 
called, 24 ; returns  to  the  law, 
24;  political  prospects  and  con- 
nections, 25,  27 ; ill-treated  by 
Jefferson,  28 ; elected  to  State 
Senate,  28 ; offends  the  Federal- 
ists by  his  independence,  29 ; 
elected  to  United  States  Senate, 
80;  goes  to  Washington,  30; 
harcfly  treated  there  by  Federal- 
ists, 31  ; unpopular  in  the  Senate, 
82  el  seq.  ; relationship  with  Pick- 
ering, 32 ; action  concerning  ad- 
mission of  Louisiana,  35 ; con- 
temiug  impeachment  of  Judge 
Chase,  36;  impro\ement  of  his 
position  in  the  Senate,  36;  posi- 
tion concerning  relations  of 
United  States  with  England,  33 
seq. ; disagreement  with  Feder- 


alists, 40,  50;  supports  non-im« 
portation  act,  40,  and  see  49  ; on 
the  decrees  and  orders  of  France 
and  England,  42, 47  et  seq. ; behav- 
ior concerning  affair  of  Chesa- 
peake and  Leopard,  51 ; expelled 
from  Federal  party,  52,  56  et  s^q. , 
supports  the  embargo,  52 ; resigns 
his  Senatorship,  67 ; his  course 
considered,  57  et  seq. ; justified  in 
leaving  the  Fedeml  party,  61  el 
seq^;  effects  of  his  doing  so,  64; 
relationship  with  Republican 
party,  65,  66  ; his  own  reflections 
at  this  time,  66,  67 ; nominated 
Minister  to  Russia,  69,  70  ; life 
and  services  iu  Russia,  71-75;  ap- 
pointed Commissioner  to  treat  for 
peiice  with  Great  Britain,  75  et 
seq. ; his  share  in  the  ensuing  ne- 
gotiation, 77-93;  relationship 
with  Clay,  84  ; habits,  85;  opin- 
ion as  to  the  Mississippi  and  the 
fisheries,  88-90  ; appointed  Minis- 
ter to  England,  98;  his  stay  and 
services  there,  99-101 ; relations 
with  Canning  and  Castlereagh, 
99,  100 ; appointed  Secretary  of 
State  by  President  Monroe,  101 ; 
in  W'ashington  society,  lu4  ; can- 
didate for  Presidency,  106;  pol- 
icy towards  revolted  Spanish  col- 
onies, 110  ; his  negotiations  with 
Don  Onis,  the  Spanish  Minister, 
112  ci  s-eq.;  concludes  the  treaty, 
116;  butatonce  encounters  mis- 
understandings, 117,  IIS;  and 
thereupon  advises  vigorous  meas- 
ures, 119;  reopens  negotiations 
with  Vives,  124 ; finally  concludes 
treaty,  125,  126;  feeling  about 
slavery  at  time  of  Missouri  Com- 
promise, 126-124;  sends  in  hia 
report  on  weights  and  measures 
127  ; dignified  behavior  in  foreign 
relations,  128  et  seq.  / originate* 


512 


INDEX. 


tho  Monroe  Doctrine,  131,  132, 
137 ; viewsconcerning acquisition 
of  territory  by  United  States, 
131;  opposition  to  “Holy  Alli- 
ance,” 133;  receives  droll  propo- 
sition from  Portugal,  135 ; holds 
United  States  aloof  from  Euro- 
pean entanglements, ’135-137  ; in- 
terviews with  Stratford  Cann  ing 
as  to  slave-trade,  136,  138-140 ; 
angry  discussion  with  Stratford 
Canning,  141-149;  feelings  to- 
wards Mr.  Clay  during  Presiden- 
tial campaign,  152-155  ; hatred  of 
Handolph,  154  ; and  of  Crawford, 
155-157 ; behavior  towards  Gen- 
eral Jackson,  159-1G4  : rules  of 
conduct  during  Presidential  cam- 
paign, 164-167  ; feelings  concern- 
ing the  campaign,  167-169  ; elec- 
toral vote  for,  170:  elected  by  in- 
ti uence  of  Clay,  170-174  ; feelings 
concerning  his  election,  175-177  ; 
his  inauguration,  176;  enmity 
with  Jackson,  176 ; nominates 
his  Cabinet,  178  ; makes  Ilufus 
King  Minister  to  England,  178  ; 
principle  as  to  distribution  of 
offices,  179-lSl ; charged  with 
having  bargained  with  Clay  for 
his  election,  181-189;  political 
prospects  of  his  administration, 

189  cf  seq.;  relations  towards  the 
South  and  political  parties,  189- 
193  ; Jacksonian  opposition  to  his 
administration,  193;  nominates 
emissaries  to  Panama  Congress, 

190  ; internal  policy  of  his  admin- 
istration, 194-196  ; at  the  Chesa- 
peake and  Ohio  Canal,  195  ; true 
issue  between  him  and  Jackson, 
196-201 ; refuses  to  propitiate 
support,  201-205;  relations  with 
his  Cabinet,  205-207  ; routine  of 
daily  life  as  President,  207 ; 
threatened  with  assassination, 
208 ; political  charges  against, 
^09,  210;  pungent  passages  from 
»is  diary,  211-213;  beaten  in 
Presidential  campaign  of  1827, 
213;  opinion  of  Von  Holst  con- 
cerning, 214  : feelings  concerning 
his  defeat,  215 ; quarrel  with  the 
thirteen  Federalists,  216-220  ; his 
finances,  221  ; his  literary  habits, 
222-224 ; election  to  Congress,  226, 
233;  as  an  orator,  223;  in  Congress, 
230-234  ; position  with  regard  to 
the  Uiriff,  South  Carolina,  and 
President  Jackson,  235-238  ; gen- 


erally in  opposition  to  Jackcon  ■ 
administration,  239  ; but  aids  him 
in  affair  with  France,  239,240; 
personal  relations  with  Jackson, 
240-243 ; his  relations  towards 
abolii-ion  and  slavery  in  Congress, 
244  ; his  function  in  the 

anti-slavery  contest,  245,  246  ; 
consequent  unpopularity,  247; 
but  supported  by  some,  248  ; pre- 
sents anti-slavery  petitions,  249- 
252,  254,  257-262 ; opposes  the 
“gag”  rule,  251,  252,  257,  259, 
261 ; relations  with  abolitionists, 
255  et  seq  ; supported  by  his  con- 
stituents, 256;  presents  petition 
of  Sherloch  S.  Gregory,  257  ; ef- 
forts concerning  Texan  petitions, 
etc.,  257  ; concerning  petitions  re- 
lating to  llayti,  260;  declares  the 
war  powers  of  the  Government 
to  include  abolition  of  slavery, 
262-266  ; opposes  annexation  of 

\ Texas,  266,  267  ; presents  petition 
for  his  own  expulsion,  268, 269  ; 
presents  petition  from  slaves,  270 
et  seq ; attempt  to  remove  him 
from  Chairmanship  of  Foreign 
Attairs  Committee,  280,  290  ; pi'c- 

\s’ents  petition  for  dissolution  of 
the  Union,  281  et  seq. ; services  of, 
at  organization  of  twenty-sixth 
Congress,  in  the  dispute  over  the 
New  Jersey  members,  291  et  seq.; 
his  reflections  concerning  his  un- 
popularity, 297-299 ; physical  con- 
dition in  old  age,  3U3,  304,  306 ; 
multiplicity  of  labors,  305;  suc- 
ceeds in  effecting  abolition  of  the 
“gag”  rule,  306-308;  paralysis, 
308;  death,  308,  309. 

Bagot,  Mr.,  British  Minister,  refer 
eiice  to  by  Mr.  Canning,  143,  144. 

Barnard,  D.  D.,  presents  petition  for 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  289. 

“ Barnevelt,”  papers  of,  18. 

Barron,  Commodore,  commander  of 
the  Chesapeake,  45. 

Bayard,  appointed  Commissioner  to 
treat  for  peace  with  Great  Britain 
75,  76. 

Berlin  decree,  issued,  41. 

Caluodn,  John  C.,  candidate  foi 
Presidency,  107, 150 ; remark  con- 
cerning Southern  alliance  with 
England,  122;  opinion  of  Craw- 
foT-d,  158. 

Canning  Stratford,  interviews  wick 


INDEX. 


313 


Mr.  Adams  as  to  slaxe  trade,  136, 
138-140  ; angry  discussion  of  Mr. 
Adams  with,  141-140. 

Castlere.agh,  Lord,  position  towards 
the  United  States  in  1314,93,  94; 
relations  of  Mr.  Adams  with,  99, 
100. 

Chase,  Judge,  impeachment  of,  36. 

Chesapeake,  affair  of  the,  45,  50 ; 
public  meeting,  51. 

Che.<apeake  and  Ohio  Canal  opened, 
195. 

Clay,  Henry,  appointed  Commis- 
sioner to  treat  for  peace  with 
England,  77  ; relations  with  Mr. 
Adams,  84,  152-155;  feelings 
about  the  Mississippi  and  the 
fisheries,  S$-90  ; Commissioner  at 
London,  9S ; lo.^ses  at  cards,  104  ; 
relations  with  Monroe’s  adminis- 
tration, 107,  152,155;  concerning 
South  American  states,  110,  153, 
154  : opposes  Spanish  treaty,  113, 
117,  125:  candidate  for  Presi- 
deucy,  150  ; controls  Presidential 
election  in  1825,  170-174:  made 
Secretary  of  State,  178;  votes  at 
his  confirmation,  189;  charged 
with  having  made  a corrupt  bar- 
gjiin  with  Mr.  Adams,  181-189; 
duel  with  Randolph,  184. 

Oolumbia River,  discussion  between 
Mr.  Adams  and  Canning  as  to  set- 
tlement upon,  141-149. 

“ Columbus,’’  papers  of,  18. 

Congress,  troubles  at  organization 
of  tweiity-.«ixth,  291  et  seq. 

Crawford,  William  II.,  in  the  Treas- 
ury, 106 ; candidate  for  Presi- 
dency, 106, 107, 150  ; beharior  of, 
concerning  Spanish  treaty,  113; 
hated  by  Mr.  Adams,  155-157 ; 
Calhoun’s  opinion  of,  15S. 

Dana,  Francis,  Minister  to  Russia, 
13. 

Deas,  Mr.,  at  London,  21,  22. 

De  Xeuville,  French  Minister,  ser- 
vices to  Mr.  Adams  concerning 
Spanish  treaty,  115. 

Diary,  beginning  of,  6 ; remarks 
concerning,  8 et  seq.;  during 
Presidential  campaign,  151,  165, 
169  ; during  Presidency,  211-213  ; 
some  extracts  from,  300  et  seq. 

Embargo,  supported  by  Mr.  Adams, 
52  seq. 

England,  relations  of  United  States 
with,  in  1806,  1307,  37,  33  ; viola- 


tions of  international  law  by,  39, 
41 : impressment  of  .American 
seamen  by,  43  et  seq. : harm  done 
by,  to  United  States.46;  appoints 
Commissioners  to  treat  for  peace 
with  United  States,  77  ; sugges- 
tion of  Southern  alliance  with 
122. 

Federalists,  controversy  of  the 
thirteen,  with  Adams,  216-220. 

Federal  party,  schism  in  the,  26, 
27 ; condition  of,  in  Mas.'«achu- 
setts,  28;  relations  of,  with  J. 
Q.  Adams,  28 ; elects  him  to  State 
Senate.  28  ; to  United  States  Sen- 
ate, 30;  treats  Mr.  Adams  se- 
verely in  the  Senate,  31 ; behavior 
tow’ards  England  in  1806,  40,  47  • 
in  affair  of  the  Chesapeake,  52 , 
expels  Mr.  Adams,  52;  further  an 
tipathy  to  him,  in  matter  of  em 
bargo,  53 ; criticised,  59-61 ; de- 
cay of,  105. 

Florida  ceded  to  United  States,  116 
125. 

“ Gag  ” rule,  so  called,  established, 
251,  252,  261;  petitions  partially 
receivable  under,  262;  rescinded, 
306-303. 

Gallatin,  Commissioner  to  treat  for 
peace  with  Great  Britain,  75,  76  ; 
Commissioner  at  London,  98. 

Gambier,  Lord,  Commissioner  to 
treat  for  peace,  77. 

Garland,  clerk,  behavior  of  at  or- 
ganization of  twenty  sixth  Con- 
gress, 291  et  seq. 

Ghent,  negotiations  at.  See  Treaty. 

Goulb-urn,  Commissioner  to  treat 
for  peace,  77. 

Greece,  affairs  of,  135. 

Grenville,  Lord,  negotiations  of  Mr 
Adams  with,  21,  22. 

Hath,  petitions  relating  to,  260. 

Impressment  of  American  seamon 
b}'  England,  43  et  seq. 

Jay’s  treaty  ratified,  21,  22. 

Jackson,  General  .Andrew,  and  the 
Spanish  treaty,  126 ; candidate  fot 
Presidency,  1.50;  Adams's  treat- 
ment of,  i59-164  ; loses  the  Presi- 
dential election,  170-174 ; his  con- 
nection with  the  charge  of  a 
corrupt  understanding  between 
Adams  and  Clay,  185-189;  hii 


814 


INDEX. 


party  led  by  Van  Buren,  193; 
the  question  at  issue  between 
him  and  Adams,  196-201 ; elected 
President,  213;  his  message  of 
December  4,  1S32,  235 ; behavior 
towards  France  concerning  her 
indebtedness,  239;  made  Doctor 
of  Laws  by  Harvard  College,  242 ; 
personal  relations  with  J.  Q.  Ad- 
ams, 240-243. 

/ackson,  Mr.,  British  Minister,  ref- 
erence to,  by  Mr.  Canning,  147, 
148. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  ill-treats  J.  Q. 
Adams,  28. 

Johnson,  Joshua,  father-in-law  of 
Mr.  Adams,  22. 

King.  Rufus,  Minister  to  England, 
178. 

Leop.\rd,  the,  attacks  the  Chesa- 
peake, 45, 50 ; public  meeting  con- 
cerning the  attack,  51. 

Lloyd,  James  N.,  chosen  to  United 
States  Senate  in  place  of  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, 57. 

Louisiana,  admission  of,  35 ; dis- 
putes as  to  boundary  of,  111, 
113. 

‘Marcellos,'’  papers  of,  18. 

McLean,  double-dealing  of,  206, 
_2U7. 

Milan  decree  issued,  42. 

Mills,  Hon.  E.  1I-,  sketch  of  Wash- 
ington by,  l<i2  ; remarks  about 
Mr.  Adams,  104:  about  Crawford, 
158. 

Mississippi,  navigation  of  the,  88- 
90,  95. 

Missouri,  admission  of,  into  Union, 
120 ; bearing  of  this  upon  Spanish 
treaty,  124,  125. 

donroe  Doctrine,  originated  by  Mr. 
Adams,  130, 132,  137. 

Monroe,  President,  nominates  Mr. 
Adams  Secretary  of  State,  101 ; in 
society  at  Washington,  103;  his 
administration,  102, 106,  108  ; op- 
posed by  Clay,  107,110;  anxious 
for  treaty  with  Spain,  114  ; his 
relationship  to  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, 130-137. 

Moose  Island,  in  treaty  of  1S14,  91. 

.Veutralitt  Act  passed,  109. 

S'ew  England,  position  of,  concern- 
ing British  aggressions  in  1806, 
47. 


New  Jersey,  dispute  over  seats  of 
Representatives  from,  291  et  seq. 

Non-importation  act,  passed,  40. 

Northeastern  fisheries,  in  treaty  of 
1814,  88-90,  92,  95. 

Oxis,  Don,  Spanish  Minister,  111; 
character  of,  112  ; his  part  in  ne* 
gotiating  treaty  between  Spain 
and  United  States,  112  et  seq. ; ap 
pealed  to  concerning  misunder- 
standings under  the  treaty,  117 
118. 

Panama,  Congress  of,  190. 

Parsons,  Theophilus,  instructs 
Adams  in  law,  17. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  candidate  for 
United  States  Senate,  30  ; elected, 
82  ; relationship  with  Mr.  Adams, 
32 ; votes  against  Mr.  Adams  as 
Minister  to  Russia,  70. 

Porter,  General  Peter  B.,  a member 
of  the  Cabinet,  206. 

Portugal,  Mr.  Adams  appointed 
Minister  to,  23 ; proposal  to  United 
States  to  establish  an  “ American 
System,”  135. 

Prussia,  Mr.  Adams  goes  as  Minis 
ter  to,  24. 

“ Publicola,”  papers  of,  18. 

Randolph,  John,  hated  by  Mr 
Adams,  154,  211,  212 ; duel  with 
Clay,  184. 

Report  on  weights  and  measures, 
127. 

Republican  party,  Adams's  rela 
tiom?  with,  in  1806-7,  65,  66. 

RomanzofT,  Count,  offers  mediation 
of  Russia  between  United  States 
and  England,  75. 

Rus.seU,  Jonathan,  appointed  Com 
missioner  to  treat  for  peace  with 
England,  77. 

Russia,  Mr.  Adams  appointed  Min- 
ister to,  70 ; life  in,  71-  76. 

Sectionalism  as  a basis  of  political 
parties,  189-193. 

Slavery,  petitions  for  abolition  of, 
presented  by  Mr.  Adams,  249-252, 
254 ; efforts  to  stop  reception  of 
these  petitions,  249-252 ; may  be 
abolished  by  virtue  of  war  pow- 
ers of  United  States  Government, 
262-266  ; petitions  for  abolishing, 
referred  to  Committee  on  District 
of  Columbia,  307 ; and  see  chap 
ter  iii.,  passim. 


INDEX. 


315 


Slaves,  presentation  of  petition  of, 
270  eC  seq. 

Slave-trade,  propositions  for  its  sup- 
pression, 136, 138-140. 

South,  a party  of  the,  first  organ- 
ized, 18^193. 

South  America,  States  of,  anxious 
for  recognition  by  United  States, 
109 ; proposed  interference  in  af- 
fairs of,  by  Holy  Alliance,  133 ; 
Mr.  Clay’s  course  concerning,  110, 
153, 154. 

Spain,  difficulties  with,  110,  111 ; 
treaty  with,  concluded,  116;  re- 
fuses ratification,  118 

Texas,  petitions  concerning,  257 ; 
annexation  of,  opposed  by  Mr. 
Adams.  266,  267. 

Treaty  of  peace  with  England  in 
1814,  negotiations  concerning, 
77-93 ; terms  of,  94,  96 ; opinions 
concerning  in  England,  9^  97, 
98 ; in  the  United  States,  97 ; of 
1783,  80;  concluded  with  Spain, 


116 ; but  misunderstandings  ari-* 
concerning,  117 ; not  ratified  ],f 
Spain,  118 ; finally  ratified,  125. 

UhTTED  States,  relations  of,  wflb 
England  in  1800,  378. 

Van  Bokex,  leads  opposition  to  Jtr 
Adams’s  administration,  193. 

Yives,  Spanish  Minister,  arriyst, 
124 ; concludes  treaty,  125. 

Von  Holst,  opinion  of  Mr.  Adrma. 
214 

War  power  of  United  States  Gov- 
ernment to  abolish  slavery,  262- 
266. 

Washington,  in  1803,  80;  in  1817, 
102-104. 

Washington,  George,  treatment  of 
Mr.  Adams,  23. 

Weights  and  measures,  report  on, 
127. 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  treatment  of  Mr 
Adams, 


^mencatt  ptatcsmen. 

A Series  of  Biographies  of  Men  conspicuous  in  the 
Political  History  of  the  United  States. 

EDITED  BY 

JOHN  T.  MORSE,  Jr. 


The  object  of  this  series  is  not  merely  to  giv^e  a 
namber  of  unconnected  narratives  of  men  in  Amerb 
can  political  life,  but  to  produce  books  vrhich  shall, 
when  taken  together,  indicate  the  lines  of  political 
thought  and  development  in  American  history. 
The  volumes  now  ready  are  as  follows.  — 

yohn  Quincy  Adams.  By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
Alexander  Hamilton.  By  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 
yohn  C.  Calhoun.  By  Dr.  H.  von  Holst. 
Andrew  yackson.  By  Prof.  W.  G.  Sumner. 
yohn  Randolph.  By  Henry  Adams. 
yames  Monroe.  By  Pres.  Daniel  C.  Gilman. 
Thomas  yefferson.  By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 

Daniel  Webster.  By  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

Albert  Gallatin.  By  John  Austin  Stevens. 
yames  Madisoti.  By  Sydney  Howard  Gay. 
yohn  Ada?ns.  By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
yo/m  Marshall.  By  A.  B.  Magruder. 

Samuel  Adams.  By*  James  K.  Hosmer.. 

Thomas  H.  Benton.  By  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Henry  Clay.  By  Hon.  Carl  Schurz.  2 vols. 
Patrick  Henry.  By  Moses  Coit  Tyler 
Gouver7ieur  Morris.  By  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Martm  Va7i  Bure7i.  By  Edward  M.  Shepard. 

m PREPARATION. 

Geo7-ge  Washmgto7i,  By  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 
2 vols. 

Others  to  be  announced  hereafter.  Each  volume, 
j6mo.  gilt  top,  $1-25  ; half  morocco,  $2.50. 


ESTIMATES  OF  THE  PRESS. 


“JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.” 

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posterity  we  have  very  little  doubt,  and  he  has  set  an  admirable 
example  to  his  coadjutors  in  respect  of  interesting  narrative, 
just  proportion,  and  judicial  candor. — New  York  Evening 
Post. 

Mr.  Morse  has  written  closely,  compactly,  intelligently,  fear-> 
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“ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.” 

The  biography  of  Mr.  Lodge  is  calm  and  dignified  through- 
out. He  has  the  virtue  — rare  indeed  among  biographers  — 
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“ANDREW  JACKSON.” 

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The  book  has  been  to  me  intensely  interesting.  ...  It  is 
rich  in  new  facts  and  side  lights,  and  is  worthy  of  its  place  in 
the  already  brilliant  series  of  monographs  on  American  States- 
men.— Prof.  Moses  Coit  Tyler. 

Remarkably  interesting.  . . . The  biography  has  all  the  ele- 
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fjrd  Courant. 


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of  the  great  jurist  — San  Francisco  Bulletin. 


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along-  in  spite  of  himself,  sometimes  protesting,  sometimes 
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met  so  satisfactorily  as  in  this  memoir  of  Jefferson.  — Boston 
journal. 


“DANIEL  WEBSTER.” 

It  will  be  read  by  students  of  history  ; it  will  be  invaluable  as 
a work  of  reference  ; it  will  be  an  authority  as  regards  matters 
of  fact  and  criticism ; it  hits  the  key-note  of  Webster’s  durable 
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ALBERl'  C;ALLATIN.>' 


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cessible as  is  that  pertaining  to  men  more  often  treated  by  the 
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dent  Hartford  Coiirant. 

Frank,  simple,  and  straightforward.  — Ne-eo  York  Tribune, 

“JOHN  ADAMS.” 

A good  piece  of  literary  work.  ...  It  covers  the  ground 
thoroughly,  and  gives  ju.st  the  sort  of  simple  and  succinct  ac- 
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“SAMUEL  ADAMS.” 

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Written  in  a spirit  of  candor  and  humanity.  — Worcester  Spy. 

A brilliant  and  enthusiastic  book,  which  it  will  do  every 
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“HENRY  CLAY.” 

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“PATRICK  HENRY.” 

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